Edythe D. London

About

Edythe D. London is a professor in the Pharmacology Department at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a pioneer in brain imaging to study addiction, performing translational studies primarily using multi-modal brain imaging in human research participants, including molecular imaging with PET and MRS, as well as structural and functional MRI. Her research aims to elucidate neurochemical and circuit-level abnormalities that can inform evidence-based treatments for addiction. Her work has provided notable firsts, such as mapping drug-induced euphoria and drug craving in the human brain, visualizing the cerebral distributions of actions of abused drugs, and developing probes for external brain imaging. Her contributions to the development of radiotracers for human research have facilitated studies on addictions and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Focusing on corticostriatal circuitry, dopamine receptor signaling, and executive functioning, her recent work builds on her seminal findings of prefrontal cortical and cognitive deficits in cocaine users, providing potential therapeutic targets for addiction treatments and mechanisms by which dopaminergic neurotransmission modulates decision-making through an interactive frontostriatal system.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Medicine
• Neuroscience
• Internal medicine
• Chemistry

Selected publications

• A methodological checklist for fMRI drug cue reactivity studies: development and expert consensus

  Nature Protocols · 2022-02-04 · 92 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mapping cortical and subcortical asymmetries in substance dependence: Findings from the ENIGMA Addiction Working Group

  Addiction Biology · 2021-01-28 · 41 citations

  articleOpen access

  Brain asymmetry reflects left-right hemispheric differentiation, which is a quantitative brain phenotype that develops with age and can vary with psychiatric diagnoses. Previous studies have shown that substance dependence is associated with altered brain structure and function. However, it is unknown whether structural brain asymmetries are different in individuals with substance dependence compared with nondependent participants. Here, a mega-analysis was performed using a collection of 22 str…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Parameter Space and Potential for Biomarker Development in 25 Years of fMRI Drug Cue Reactivity

  JAMA Psychiatry · 2024-02-07 · 36 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Importance: In the last 25 years, functional magnetic resonance imaging drug cue reactivity (FDCR) studies have characterized some core aspects in the neurobiology of drug addiction. However, no FDCR-derived biomarkers have been approved for treatment development or clinical adoption. Traversing this translational gap requires a systematic assessment of the FDCR literature evidence, its heterogeneity, and an evaluation of possible clinical uses of FDCR-derived biomarkers. Objective: To summarize…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Smoking, tobacco dependence, and neurometabolites in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex

  Molecular Psychiatry · 2023-09-25 · 13 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Cigarette smoking has a major impact on global health and morbidity, and positron emission tomographic research has provided evidence for reduced inflammation in the human brain associated with cigarette smoking. Given the consequences of inflammatory dysfunction for health, the question of whether cigarette smoking affects neuroinflammation warrants further investigation. The goal of this project therefore was to validate and extend evidence of hypoinflammation related to smoking, and to examin…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Decomposing risky decision-making in methamphetamine use disorder: Behavioral updating and D2 dopamine receptors

  Drug and Alcohol Dependence · 2023-03-29 · 12 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Escalating misuse of amphetamine-type stimulants, mainly methamphetamine, has led to a staggering rise in associated overdose deaths and a pressing need to understand the basis of methamphetamine use disorder (MUD). MUD is characterized by disadvantageous decision-making, and people with MUD perform below controls on the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), a laboratory test of decision-making under uncertainty. The BART presents a series of choices with progressively higher stakes-gre…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant Z01DA000385

  NIH · $1.2M

• NIH Grant Z01DA000405

  NIH · $1.9M

• NIH Grant R01DA036487

  NIH · $1.5M · 2016

Frequent coauthors

• M. Mandelkern

  University of California, Irvine

  199 shared

• Alane S. Kimes

  National Institute on Drug Abuse

  179 shared

• Dara G. Ghahremani

  124 shared

• Alexey G. Mukhin

  Duke University

  115 shared

• Monique Ernst

  National Institutes of Health

  109 shared

• Arthur L. Brody

  University of California, San Diego

  100 shared

• John A. Matochik

  National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

  97 shared

• Angelica M. Morales

  Oregon Health & Science University

  95 shared

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy, Pharmacology and Toxicology

  University of Maryland, Baltimore

Similar researchers at University of California, Los Angeles

• Antoni Ribash-218
• Owen Witteh-170
• Thomas Graeberh-112