Hoki is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program (NSIDP) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), with a strong interest in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying cognition and behavior across healthy and clinical populations.
Her research combines neurocognitive testing, behavioral experiments, multimodal neuroimaging, and computational modeling to 1) study the neural mechanisms underlying typical reward processing and decision making and 2) investigate how these mechanisms may be altered in neurological and psychiatric conditions. She is involved in a variety of brain-and-behavior research projects, including MRI-based work on cerebellar contributions to neurodevelopmental outcomes and psychiatric risk, as well as EEG-based research examining how audiovisual stimulation influences neural entrainment and sleep physiology.
She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015, M.Res. in Cognitive Neuroscience from University College London in 2016, and M.Comp. in Artificial Intelligence from the National University of Singapore in 2022. Prior to joining UCLA, she worked across academia, startups, and scientific consulting, with experience in deep tech, health tech, and neurotechnology. Her expertise spans the full research and development pipeline, from study design and experimental development to quantitative modeling, machine learning, and the translation of interdisciplinary research into practical applications.
Selected News
- 03/2026: First-authored paper – on cerebellar volumetric alterations in 22q11.2 copy number variants – is accepted at Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science; the journal pre-proof is currently in press [online].
- 02/2026: Co-authored paper – with the Bearden Lab – is published in Molecular Psychiatry [online].
- 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.