About

Hoki is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program (NSIDP) at UCLA, who has a keen research interest in higher-order executive functions in both healthy and clinical populations. 

She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015, M.Res. in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University College London in 2016, and M.Comp. in Artificial Intelligence from the National University of Singapore in 2022.

Her research combines neurocognitive testing, behavioral experiments, functional neuroimaging, and computational modeling to 1) study the neural mechanisms underlying typical reward processing and decision making and 2) investigate how these mechanisms might be compromised in neurological and psychiatric conditions.

She had held multiple academic and non-academic research positions prior to joining UCLA, and is experienced in collecting and analyzing behavioral, structural MRI, resting-state fMRI, and task-fMRI data.

She is involved in a variety of brain-and-behavior projects and her latest research collaboration with the Centre for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School investigates the treatment effect of an antidepressant on patients’ cognitive functioning and brain functional connectivities. 

Click on one of these icons to learn more about Hoki’s work or connect with her!


Selected News

  • 05/2025: First-authored paper – on selective KOR antagonism and individualized brain systems in mood and anxiety spectrum disorders – is published in Neuropsychopharmacology [online][pdf]
  • 01/2025:  Co-authored paper – with the Clinical Brain Lab – is published in Sensors [online][pdf]
  • 01/2025:  Co-authored paper – with the Bearden Lab – is published in Biological Psychiatry [online]
  • 07/2024: First-authored commentary – on an integrated framework for advancing psychosis research – is published in Biological Psychiatry: CNNI [online][pdf]
  • 05/2024:  Co-authored paper – with the Bearden Lab – is published in Neuropsychopharmacology [online]
  • 03/2024:  Received the NEURO2024 Travel Award for Foreign Scientists 
  • 12/2022:  First-authored paper – about 24-h movement behaviors and health indicator in early adolescence – is out in JAH [online][pdf]
  • 09/2022:  Started her PhD in Neuroscience at UCLA
  • 08/2022:  Received the Graduate Dean’s Scholar Award from UCLA
  • 05/2022:  Graduated from NUS with a Master’s in Computing with a focus on Artificial Intelligence

 all news