Youngsun Cho, MD, PhD
Assistant ProfessorDownloadHi-Res Photo
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Child Study Center
Fully Joint
Psychiatry
Fully Joint
About
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Assistant Professor
Biography
Dr. Youngsun T. Cho is an Assistant Professor in the Child Study Center and Department of Psychiatry at Yale University. She is a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist. She holds an MD/PhD degree from the University of Rochester, and completed dissertation work on amygdala neuroanatomy and reward processing using fMRI. She completed psychiatry residency in the Neuroscience Research Training Program (NRTP) at Yale, and a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center.
Her current research focuses on the development of cognitive and motivational brain circuits in adolescents with depression and adolescents with schizophrenia using fMRI, and pharmacologic neuroimaging to identify mechanisms of potential treatments. Her work is funded by the NIMH, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.
Last Updated on January 04, 2025.
Appointments
Child Study Center
Assistant ProfessorFully JointPsychiatry
Assistant ProfessorFully Joint
Other Departments & Organizations
- Center for Brain & Mind Health
- Child Study Center
- Cho Lab
- Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit
- Division of Neurocognition, Neurocomputation & Neurogenetics
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program
- Janeway Society
- MR Core
- Neuroscience Research Training Program (NRTP)
- Neuroscience Track
- Psychiatry
- Yale Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS)
- Yale Medicine
- Yale New Haven Health System
Education & Training
- PhD
- Univ of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry (2013)
- MD
- Univ of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry (2013)
- MS
- University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry (2009)
- BS
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2005)
Research
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Overview
Medical Research Interests
Amygdala; Child Development; Cognition; Depression; Motivation; Neuroimaging; Schizophrenia
ORCID
0000-0001-8639-3869- View Lab Website
Cho Lab
Research at a Glance
Yale Co-Authors
Frequent collaborators of Youngsun Cho's published research.
Zailyn Tamayo
Clara Fonteneau, PhD
Albert Powers, MD, PhD
Scott Woods, MD
Nicole Popp Santamauro, MA
Brendan Adkinson
Publications
2026
Untangling relationships between cognitive development and child and adolescent mental health: Findings from the ABCD Study
Chen Y, Agrawal S, Anokhin A, Luciana M, Gee D, Cho Y. Untangling relationships between cognitive development and child and adolescent mental health: Findings from the ABCD Study. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 2026, 80: 101772. PMID: 42372692, PMCID: PMC13330672, DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2026.101772.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchAltmetricConceptsAdolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentPsychotic-like experiencesMental health symptomsExecutive functionHealth symptomsAssociated with externalizing symptomsCognitive developmentAdolescent Brain Cognitive Development StudyAdolescent Brain Cognitive Development datasetMental healthWorking memory impairmentDisruptive behavior disordersObsessive-compulsive symptomsEarly cognitive markerAutism spectrum disorderAdolescent mental healthWorking memoryInternalizing symptomsCognitive markersCommunity sampleSymptom domainsMemory impairmentPsychiatric riskAssessment wavesPositive cognitionsRegional, functional and transcriptomic decoding of multidimensional brain structure alterations in obsessive-compulsive disorder
Cardoso Saraiva L, Sato J, Sebenius I, Dzinalija N, del Río-Torné C, Godinho F, Lopes A, Fernandez T, Lima M, Ramos V, Iglesio R, Abe Y, Alonso P, Ameis S, Anticevic A, Araújo A, Arnold P, Balachander S, Banaj N, Batistuzzo M, Benedetti F, Bollettini I, Bravi B, Brennan B, Buitelaar J, Castelo-Branco M, Choi S, Costa A, Dallaspezia S, Denys D, Duarte I, Echevarria M, Eng G, Fernandes A, Feusner J, Figee M, Fitzsimmons S, Fontenelle L, Grazioplene R, Ha M, Hinojosa A, Hoexter M, Huijser C, Hu H, James A, Kim M, Kwon J, Lazaro L, Lochner C, Machado-Sousa M, van Marle H, Martínez-Zalacaín I, Mataix-Cols D, Menchón J, Minuzzi L, Morgado P, Muñoz-Moreno E, Nakao T, Narayanaswamy J, Nurmi E, O’Neill J, Park I, Phillips M, Piacentini J, Picó-Pérez M, Piras F, Piras F, Postma T, Li C, Reddy J, van Rooij D, Sakai Y, de Salles Andrade J, Scheffler F, Shivakumar V, Soreni N, Stern E, van der Straten A, Thomopoulos S, Tomiyama H, Tovar-Moll F, Vecchio D, Veltman D, Venkatasubramanian G, Vriend C, Wang Z, van der Werf Y, van Wingen G, Zhao Q, Charney A, Cho Y, Shavitt R, Pushkarskaya H, Soriano-Mas C, Romero-Garcia R, Thompson P, Stein D, van den Heuvel O, Winkler A, Miguel Filho E, Pittenger C, Cappi C. Regional, functional and transcriptomic decoding of multidimensional brain structure alterations in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Nature Communications 2026 PMID: 42343090, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-74153-2.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchAltmetricConceptsObsessive-compulsive disorderPostmortem brain studiesBrain morphologyStudies of obsessive-compulsive disorderCortical alterationsStudies of brain morphologyDorsolateral prefrontal cortexBrain structural alterationsSubcortical shape alterationsTranscriptomic decodingPrefrontal cortexFrontoparietal networkDefault modeNeuroimaging phenotypesSensorimotor regionsMental illnessNetwork phenotypesRegional alterationsCortical curvatureExcitatory neuronsDisordersStructural phenotypesMedication useGene expression patternsSimilar alterationsQuNex recipes: Executable, human-readable workflows for reproducible neuroimaging research
Demšar J, Kraljič A, Matkovič A, Brege S, Pan L, Tamayo Z, Fonteneau C, Helmer M, Ji J, Anticevic A, Korponay C, Salavrakos M, Drucker D, Glasser M, Nickerson L, Cho Y, Repovš G. QuNex recipes: Executable, human-readable workflows for reproducible neuroimaging research. Imaging Neuroscience 2026, 4: imag.a.1274. PMID: 42312086, PMCID: PMC13271150, DOI: 10.1162/imag.a.1274.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchAltmetricConceptsSeamless integrationHuman-readable formatEnd-to-endOpen-source platformMultiple software toolsWorkflow specificationDataset characteristicsAnalysis of neuroimaging dataData onboardExternal toolsSoftware toolsCustom scriptsParameter settingsPreprocessingWorkflowRecipe filesNeuroimaging communityNeuroimaging analysisFrameworkUsing games to identify adolescents at risk for substance misuse—a proof-of-concept study
Aneni K, Chen C, Meyer J, Mavromichali C, Scaria E, Liu G, Cho Y, Fiellin L. Using games to identify adolescents at risk for substance misuse—a proof-of-concept study. Frontiers In Health Services 2026, 6: 1781703. PMID: 42148446, PMCID: PMC13176319, DOI: 10.3389/frhs.2026.1781703.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsF-1 scoreProof-of-concept studyDigital biomarkersSubstance use riskGame log dataClinical utilityIn-game dataMachine learning modelsEarly identificationSubstance usePaper-based formsRandomized Controlled TrialsEarly identification of adolescentsHigh-risk behaviorsLearning modelsIdentification of adolescentsIn-gameDigital gamesLifetime substance useStandardized screening toolLog dataClinical translationF-1GameplayLow-burden tool7. Distinct Circuits Are Associated With Attenuated Delusions and Hallucinations in Clinical High Risk for Psychosis
Vin R, Fonteneau C, Tamayo Z, Cho Y, Investigators A, Scheinost D, Woods S, Powers A. 7. Distinct Circuits Are Associated With Attenuated Delusions and Hallucinations in Clinical High Risk for Psychosis. Biological Psychiatry 2026, 99: s77-s78. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2026.03.187.Peer-Reviewed Original Research164. Striatal Connectivity Correlates of Cognitive-Motivational Phenotypes in Pre-Adolescent Children
Brege S, Chen Y, Lin C, Okolo J, Pan L, Pham P, Tamayo Z, JI L, Cho Y. 164. Striatal Connectivity Correlates of Cognitive-Motivational Phenotypes in Pre-Adolescent Children. Biological Psychiatry 2026, 99: s169. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2026.03.398.Peer-Reviewed Original Research706. Motivation Enhances the Fidelity of Neural Representations of Spatial Working Memory
Rahmati M, Purg N, Schleifer C, Santamauro N, Adkinson B, Kolobaric A, Flynn M, Tamayo Z, Anticevic A, Repovs G, Cho Y. 706. Motivation Enhances the Fidelity of Neural Representations of Spatial Working Memory. Biological Psychiatry 2026, 99: s401. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2026.03.940.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchEstablishment of the Society for the Advancement of Neuroscience and Psychiatry in Residency Research Education (Synapse): An Organization to Promote Research Training in Residency
Ward H, Ajilore O, Cho Y, Cooper J, Dunlop B, Miller A, Philip N, Pruett B, Taylor S, Tyrka A, Vogel A, Goldsmith D. Establishment of the Society for the Advancement of Neuroscience and Psychiatry in Residency Research Education (Synapse): An Organization to Promote Research Training in Residency. Academic Psychiatry 2026, 1-5. PMID: 41781634, DOI: 10.1007/s40596-026-02312-0.Peer-Reviewed Reviews, Practice Guidelines, Standards, and Consensus StatementsAltmetric
2025
A translational neuroscience & computational evaluation of a D1R partial agonist for schizophrenia (TRANSCENDS): Rationale and study design of a brain-based clinical trial
Fonteneau C, Tamayo Z, Price A, Pan L, Afriyie-Agyemang Y, Agrawal S, Butler A, Cail C, Calkins M, Chakilam A, Forselius-Bielen K, Fram G, Frazier A, Gil R, Govil P, Gray D, Grinband J, Gur R, Haubold N, Heffernan Z, Heneks M, Kegeles L, Kohler C, Lin C, Lu J, Mayer M, Pham P, Perlman G, Rahmati M, Ranganathan M, Santamauro N, Schutte C, Selloni A, Van Snellenberg J, Surti T, Wolf D, Zharyy C, Group T, Abi-Dargham A, Gur R, Lieberman J, Kantrowitz J, Anticevic A, Cho Y, Krystal J. A translational neuroscience & computational evaluation of a D1R partial agonist for schizophrenia (TRANSCENDS): Rationale and study design of a brain-based clinical trial. Journal Of Psychiatric Research 2025, 194: 196-210. PMID: 41519104, PMCID: PMC13138834, DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.12.020.Peer-Reviewed Reviews, Practice Guidelines, Standards, and Consensus StatementsConceptsPartial agonistCognitive impairmentSpatial working memoryDouble-blind doseWorking memoryD1/D5 receptorsFunctional neuroimagingNeural mechanismsSchizophreniaTranslational neuroscienceCognitive paradigmNeural circuitsUntreated symptomsD1RDecades of researchFMRIClinical trialsMicro-circuitryNeuroscienceAgonistsImpairmentStudy designD1/D5Clinical dataNeuroimagingPrediction of antipsychotic medication inception in antipsychotic-naive youth at clinical high risk for psychosis
Mukhtar H, Zhou D, Farina E, Saxena A, Cahill J, Addington J, Bearden C, Cadenhead K, Cannon T, Cornblatt B, Keshwan M, Mathalon D, Perkins D, Stone W, Cho Y, Powers A, Walker E, Woods S. Prediction of antipsychotic medication inception in antipsychotic-naive youth at clinical high risk for psychosis. Psychological Medicine 2025, 55: e241. PMID: 40842369, PMCID: PMC12404330, DOI: 10.1017/s0033291725101372.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricConceptsClinical high riskCHR-PLifetime historyAugmentation of antidepressant treatmentComorbid major depressionAP useAntidepressant treatmentPositive symptomsMajor depressionAP medicationNAPLS-2Independent predictorsCHR-P.High riskBaseline clinical variablesPsychosisBaseline predictorsClinical variablesParticipantsBaseline characteristicsUnivariate analysisLogistic regression modelsObservational cohortMultivariate analysisAP initiation
Clinical Trials
Current Trials
Brain Network Changes Accompanying and Predicting Responses to Pharmacotherapy in OCD
IRB ID2000023688RoleSub InvestigatorPrimary Completion Date07/31/2024Recruiting ParticipantsGenderBothAge18 years - 65 yearsBiomarkers of Clinical Subtype and Treatment Response in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
IRB ID0803003626RoleSub InvestigatorPrimary Completion Date04/19/2025Recruiting ParticipantsGenderBothAge18 years - 70 years
News
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News
- February 07, 2025
2024-2025 YCSC Postdoctoral Scholar Travel Awardees Announced
- November 13, 2024
Woods, Cho Awarded $76M NIH Grant to Conduct Clinical Trials for Youth at Risk for Schizophrenia
- April 12, 2024
Spring 2024 postgraduate associate travel award recipients announced
- January 30, 2024
ASCI Recognizes Early-career Yale Faculty and Trainees
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