I am a developmental clinical neuropsychologist who studies brain-behavior relationships across the lifespan. While I have clinical research experience that ranges from infants born prematurely to older adults with a range of dementias, my main research focus has been on youth and young adults who have acquired neurological disorders during early life (e.g., brain tumors, congenital heart disease, and traumatic brain injury (TBI)). My research requires collaborative team science as we develop transdisciplinary methodologies using rapidly advancing technologies, methods, and analyses. The overarching goal of my work is to optimize the cognitive outcomes and everyday adaptive functions of people using individualized precision healthcare that is informed by clinical science. My clinical research laboratory at Emory School of Nursing will continue to focus on Brain and Cognitive Health (BACH) across the lifespan.

Books

• D. Murdaugh, K. O’Toole & T.Z. King (2023). Cognitive Remediation of Executive and Adaptive Deficits in Youth (C-READY): A Family Focused Program. Oxford University Press.
• G. Brown, B. Crosson, & K. Haaland, & T.Z. King (Eds.), (2023). APA Handbook of Neuropsychology: Volume 2. Neuroscience and Neuromethods. American Psychology Association.
• G. Brown, T.Z. King, K. Haaland, & B. Crosson (Eds.), (2023). APA Handbook of Neuropsychology: Volume 1. Neurobehavioral Disorders and Conditions: Accepted Science and Open Questions. American Psychology Association.
  

Select Peer Reviewed Publications

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/tricia.king.1/bibliography/public/
• Choi, JH, Syzmanski, K., Jung, D.H., King, T.Z. (in press, 2025) Beyond the Nest: The role of financial independence in young adult health. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. doi: 10.1007/s12529-024-10339-6
• Peterson, R., Choi, JH, Jacobson, L., Acharya, S., King, TZ. (in press, 2024). Neighborhood Resources are Associated with Neuropsychological Outcomes Among Pediatric Brain Tumor Survivors. The Clinical Neuropsychologist. https://doi.org/10.1080/13854046.2024.2399843 PMID: 39262302
• Semmel, E.S., Calhoun, V.D., Hillary, F., Morris, R., & King, TZ. (2023). Graph analysis of resting state functional brain networks and associations with cognitive outcomes in survivors pediatric brain tumor. Neuroimage: Reports, 3(2), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynirp.2023.100178
• Aleksonis, H., & King, T. Z. (2023). Relationships Among Structural Neuroimaging and Neurocognitive Outcomes in Adolescents and Young Adults with Congenital Heart Disease: A Systematic Review.
• Neuropsychology Review, 33(2), 432-458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-022-09547-2
• Kautiainen, R. J., Aleksonis, H., & King, T. Z. (2023). A systematic review of host genomic variation and neuropsychological outcomes for pediatric cancer survivors. Neuropsychology Review, 33(1), 278-306. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-022-09539-2
• Semmel, E. S., Na, S. D., King, T. Z. (2022). Inhibition explains the relationship between the efficiency of brain networks and adaptive outcomes in pediatric brain tumor survivors. Neuropsychology, 36(8), 764-775. https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0000862
• Fox, M.E., Turner, J.A., Crosson, B., Morris, R.D., & King, T.Z. (2021). Functional connectivity networks and their recruitment during working memory tasks in adult survivors of childhood brain tumors. Brain Connectivity, 11(10),822-837. https://doi.org/10.1089/brain.2020.0800
• Aleksonis, H.A., Krishnamurthy, L.C., & King, T.Z. (2021). White matter hyperintensity volumes are related to processing speed in long-term survivors of childhood cerebellar tumors. Journal of Neuro-Oncology, 154 (1), 63-72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-021-03799-3
• Clark, S., Semmel, E., Aleksonis, H., Steinberg, S., & King, T.Z. (2021). Cerebellar-subcortical-cortical systems as modulators of cognitive functions. Neuropsychology Review, 31, 422-446. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-020-09465-1
• Kautiainen, R.J., Fox, M.E., & King, T.Z. (2021) The Neurological Predictor Scale predicts adaptive functioning via executive dysfunction in young adult survivors of childhood brain tumor. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 27, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617720000624
• Ailion, A.S., King, T.Z., Roberts, S.R, Tang, B., Turner, J., Conway, C., Crosson, B. (2020). Double Dissociation of Auditory and Visual Attention in Survivors of Childhood Cerebellar Tumor: A Tractography Study of the Cerebellar-Frontal and the Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus Pathways. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 26, 939-953. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617720000417
• Hendrix, C.L., King, T.Z., Wise, J., & Haarbauer-Krupa, J. (2020). Early brain injury and later childhood adaptive functioning: The mediating role of pragmatic language. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 26(9), 835-850. https://doi:10.1017/S1355617720000399
• Na, S., Li, L., Crosson, B., Dotson, V., MacDonald, T.J., Mao, H., & King, T.Z. (2018). White Matter Topology relates to cognitive flexibility and cumulative neurological risk in adult survivors of pediatric brain tumor. Neuroimage: Clinical, 20, 485-497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2018.08.015
• Murdaugh, D., King, T.Z., Sun, B., Jones, R.A., Ono, K.E., Riesner, A., & Burns, T.G. (2018). Longitudinal changes in resting state connectivity and white matter integrity in adolescents with sports related concussion. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society,24(8), 781-792. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617718000413
• Ailion, A.S., Hortman, K., & King T.Z. (2017). Childhood brain tumors: A systematic review of the structural neuroimaging literature. Neuropsychology Review, 27 (3), 220-244. https://doi.org/110.1007/s11065-017-9352-6
• King T.Z., Na, S., & Mao, H. (2015). Neural underpinnings of working memory in adult survivors of childhood brain tumors. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 21(7), 494-505. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S135561771500051X

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Mentoring students and early career faculty in clinical research and professional development has been a cornerstone of my career, providing immense personal and professional fulfillment. My mentorship approach focuses on immersing mentees in hands-on research experiences, fostering a collaborative environment that sparks scientific curiosity, and providing opportunities for peer-reviewed presentations and publications. This strategy has yielded impressive results, with mentees securing competitive fellowships, excelling in top-tier internships and postdoctoral programs, and achieving career success across various fields including clinical neuropsychology, neuroscience, psychology, and medicine, and obtained academia and/or healthcare positions.

My program of research has enabled me to successfully mentor many students in research and clinical practice. In addition, students have won many awards as well as competitive internal and external fellowships. My graduate students in clinical neuropsychology have completed competitive internship and top-notch postdoctoral fellowship programs and secured excellent positions in line with their career goals. In 2020, it was an honor to receive the Outstanding Undergraduate Mentoring Award from the GSU College of Arts & Sciences. Several undergraduates and post-baccalaureate students have earned MDs (Pediatrics, Neurology) and PhDs (Clinical Neuropsychology, Clinical, Cognitive, Neuroscience, & Counseling Psychology). Given the comprehensive datasets my research team has acquired to date and the ongoing projects underway, each will allow me to continue to mentor productive research scholars across disciplines for years to come. 

Similarly, I enjoy mentoring early career faculty (e.g., Peterson, American Cancer Society ASTRO Clinician Scientist Development Grant; Kennedy Krieger/John Hopkins). For example, we have published a review paper with a call for equity in access to proton radiation treatment (Peterson & King, 2023). We demonstrated that neighborhood resources are associated with neuropsychological outcomes among brain tumor survivors (Peterson et al., in press). And most recently, we reported on the demographic, medical and neighborhood barriers to clinical neuropsychological services in pediatric medulloblastoma patients in the United States (Peterson, Choi, King, in press). Likewise, Dr. Fani has established an impactful independent program of research with multimodal neuroimaging and genomic papers that have advanced our understanding of trauma and PTSD in Black women (Fani, K23 NIMH: Fani, King, et al., 2016; 2019a; 2019b; APA SCN Early Career Award; F32: Fani, et al., 2015, 2014, 2012).

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Over the past two decades, I have been fortunate to focus my research on the brain and cognitive health of adult survivors of pediatric brain tumors, adolescent and young adults with congenital heart disease, and youth with traumatic brain injury. We use neuropsychological performance measures, informant and patient structured interviews, and innovative multimodal neuroimaging, have contributed to a better understanding of the structural and functional neural mechanisms underlying long-term outcomes. Given the significant disparities in the available neuropsychological data for underrepresented individuals, I will continue to be committed to inclusive research, healthcare, and education - for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color and for those who are underserved or otherwise vulnerable to poor outcomes. During this time, I was honored to be invited to contribute a paper to a special issue on subcortical-cortical relationships with cognition. My graduate students and I conducted the review based upon my work with pediatric brain tumor survivors and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder entitled, Cerebellar-subcortical-cortical systems as modulators of cognitive functions (Clark et al., 2021). This paper has far-reaching implications as demonstrated by the growing citations across multiple neurological populations around the world. Based on this framework, I am co-I on an RO1 ABCD Study of the frontal-thalamo-cerebellar circuitry of attention difficulties via imaging-genetic-environmental analyses.

Building on this complementary neuroimaging and neuropsychological research, plus our evidence of significant individual variability in cognitive and neuroimaging outcomes even within pediatric brain tumor subtypes, I began to expand my research to examine the genetic diatheses that may predispose individuals to more severe impairments while others have only mild difficulties. These differences could not be explained by disease characteristics (e.g., molecular subtype of tumor, age at chemoradiation). In collaboration with neuro-oncologist Dr. Tobey MacDonald, we secured pilot funding to examine the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and chemoradiation-induced late neurocognitive toxicity in survivors of childhood medulloblastoma (MB). We published on the whole genome variation (Siegel, King, et al., 2019). A systematic review of host SNPs and cognitive outcomes in pediatric cancer helped to identify targeted SNPs (Kautiainen, et al., 2023). We leveraged our pilot data to secure a multi-site grant with colleagues at Children's National (Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation) to study survivors of juvenile pilocytic astrocytomas in the hypothalamic/midline region who received chemotherapy . We also obtained a large multi-site RO1 from the National Cancer Institute entitled, Genetics (targeted SNPs), Environment (dynamic resources in the home and community), & Cognitive Outcomes in survivors of medulloblastoma (i.e., GECO). We collaborate with our Dr. Donna Murdaugh at University of Alabama at Birmingham and Dr. Kristen Hoskinson at Nationwide Children's Hospital. In addition, Dr. Bearden at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and I are thrilled to have received an administrative supplement to expand the GECO study to include Spanish speaking survivors and families in Atlanta this year.

The comprehensive biopsychosocial approach that I have employed with the brain tumor survivor studies, I also applied to improve outcomes in other pediatric populations as well. For example, the structural and functional neuroimaging methods were employed to better understand the multimodal brain system relationships with cognitive outcomes of adolescents and young adults with congenital heart disease (Aleksonis & King, 2023, King et al, 2017; Brewster et al., 2015; Semmel et al., 2018). In addition, a longitudinal study of high-school football concussions illustrated areas of brain and cognitive recovery as well as longitudinal changes in resting state connectivity and white matter integrity over time (Murdaugh et al., 2018). I also successfully leveraged pilot funding for an NIH National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research grant for a longitudinal study of school age children, to examine the role of language development on reading skill after early childhood TBI (i.e., before 5 years of age; Haarbauer-Krupa et al, 2018 & 2019). We utilized longitudinal data to demonstrate the mediating role of pragmatic language in early TBI to predict later childhood adaptive functioning (Hendrix, King, et al., 2020).

I am fortunate to have amazing collaborators to further expand my program of research in exciting ways:

One collaborator is Dr. Rafaela Feresin, a nutrition scientist at GSU, who leads two clinical research trials that examine 1) the impact of peanuts on cardiometabolic, cognitive, and intestinal health among racially diverse individuals with prediabetes  and 2) the effects of wild blueberry consumption on gut, brain, and cardiovascular health in racially diverse individuals with high blood pressure/hypertension.

Additional collaborators include Drs. Maria Swartz (MD Anderson) and Jinbing Bai, who lead collaborations to test the feasibility of telehealth home-based exercise intervention (ARISE) on cognitive function and gut microbiome in adolescents and young adult brain tumor survivors. 

My Emory collaborators, Drs. Jinbing Bai, Hui Mao, and Tamara Miller are starting a new project that takes a holistic approach to understand the role of gut-immune-brain axis in neurocognitive impairment among children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Taken as a whole, my research has made substantial contributions to understanding the science of long-term cognitive, neurological, and functional outcomes of pediatric brain tumor survivors. The work has advanced knowledge of the complex interplay between treatment factors, neurocognitive abilities, brain structure and function, and most recently genetics. My early development of tools, like the Neurological Predictor Scale, strengthens the study of complex treatments and complications observed in rare PBTs, strengthening research with modest sample sizes. Additionally, my program of research has expanded to focus on other pediatric and adult populations across the lifespan and emphasized the importance of inclusive sampling, particularly of underrepresented groups, to address healthcare disparities and improve outcomes for vulnerable populations.

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2024 Professor Emerita, Psychology,
Georgia State University

2021-2025 Elected Treasurer, of the American Psychological Association,
Society for Clinical Neuropsychology (SCN, Division 40)

2020 Scholar Award,
Georgia State University

2020 Outstanding Undergraduate Mentoring Award
Georgia State University

2019 Invited speaker for GSU Provost’s Women Inspire Series

2017 Elected Fellow of the APA
Society of Clinical Neuropsychology (SCN, Division 40)

2017-2020 Chair,
Scientific Advisory Committee, APA, SCN/Division 40