معرفی
Tamara Vanderwal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Medicine. She serves as an Investigator at BC Children's Hospital and works as a Child Psychiatrist in the TOPs Program. Her academic affiliations include the Academy of Translational Medicine, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, Centre for Brain Health, and MATRIX-N: Multidisciplinary Alliance for Translational Research and Innovation in Neuropsychiatry.
Dr. Vanderwal specializes in functional neuroimaging research focused on child psychiatric disorders, particularly depression in youth. Her work centers on using naturalistic viewing paradigms, especially movies, to study complex brain function in children who have difficulty remaining still during traditional MRI procedures. This innovative approach allows for studying the brain as it processes dynamic, real-world information streams. Her research spans functional connectivity, fMRI methodology development, and understanding brain-behavior relationships in pediatric populations.
Her recent publications reveal a strong focus on improving the reproducibility and inclusivity of neuroimaging research with youth populations. She has pioneered methods to handle head motion artifacts in pediatric fMRI, increase representation of minoritized youth in studies, and develop naturalistic paradigms that better capture real-world cognitive processing. Her work bridges clinical psychiatry with advanced neuroimaging techniques to better understand and treat child psychiatric disorders.
- American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Junior Investigator Award
- Resident Teaching Award, Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine
- Yale Psychiatry Research Scholar, Yale School of Medicine
- Contributing Editor (2014-2017), The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Dr. Vanderwal actively supervises numerous students and research personnel across various levels, from undergraduate volunteers to graduate trainees. Her research has been supported by prestigious grants including the American Psychiatric Association/Lilly Psychiatric Research Fellowship, Klingenstein Family Foundation, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Allison Family Foundation awards. She leads the Naturalistic Neuroimaging Lab which focuses on developing and implementing movie-based paradigms to study brain function in children with psychiatric conditions.
