Who We Are

Cognitive Development & Neuroimaging Lab

Who We Are

Rachel Marsh

Rachel Marsh, PhD

Lab Director
Irving Philips Professor of Medical Psychology (in Child Psychiatry)

Dr. Rachel Marsh received a BA in psychology from Skidmore College and a PhD in experimental psychology from the City University of New York. The focus of her graduate work was on cognitive and language development in infants. During her postdoctoral training, she began developing expertise in fMRI techniques and studying the functioning and development of the frontostriatal circuits that support self-regulatory capacities in healthy individuals and in those with psychopathologies that emerge during childhood and adolescence (e.g., Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and eating disorders). She is currently conducting a longitudinal multimodal MRI study aimed at understanding how abnormalities in overlapping frontostriatal neural circuits contribute to the persistence of bulimia nervosa over adolescence and adulthood. With her collaborators, Dr. Marsh is also studying how the circuits that support control and reward processes change following the remission of symptoms in adult and pediatric OCD, and how these circuits are involved in learning disabilities in children. In summary, Dr. Marsh’s research investigates the functioning and structure of the neural circuits that support self-regulation, learning, and memory in normal development and in the development of childhood psychiatric disorders. The overarching goal of this work is to determine when in development abnormalities in these circuits arise, so that we can determine where, when, and how to intervene, and thereby prevent illness persistence.

FACULTY

David Pagliaccio

David Pagliaccio, PhD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurobiology (in Psychiatry)

Dr. David Pagliaccio received his PhD in neuroscience from Washington University in St. Louis. His graduate work with Drs. Deanna Barch and Joan Luby focused on the effects of stress and stress-system genes on brain structure and function in children with early-onset depression. During his postdoctoral fellowship with Drs. Daniel Pine and Ellen Leibenluft, Dr. Pagliaccio continued fMRI research to examine the neural underpinnings of pediatric anxiety and irritability. His research aims are to use neuroimaging and other methods to understand the mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders in youth, particularly affective psychopathology, as well as to assess the psychometrics and reliability of currently used research methods. With his collaborators at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute, Dr. Pagliaccio is exploring alterations in brain circuitry and functioning relating to affective disorders, OCD, learning disorders, and other pediatric pathologies.

Xiaofu He

Xiaofu He, PhD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurobiology

Dr. He received his PhD in pattern recognition and intelligent systems from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. During his graduate studies, he was trained in the research of image processing and pattern recognition with a focus on biometrics. During his postdoctoral training, Dr. He developed expertise in brain imaging, including structural MRI, functional MRI (fMRI), and, particularly, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). One of Dr. He’s long-term goals is to bring together his expertise in image processing, pattern recognition, computational modeling, and neuroimaging to the challenge of understanding the developing brain, leading to more reliable findings in the important area of clinically oriented neuroimaging research and to better understand the mechanisms of depression and other psychiatric disorders.

STAFF

Kate Durham, PhD

Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Katherine Durham graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder before completing her Ph.D. in School Psychology at Columbia’s Teachers College. She also earned her master’s degrees in Clinical Psychology and Applied Statistics from Teachers College, both of which facilitated her research on posttraumatic stress symptoms and cognitive functioning in children and adolescents. Dr. Durham is interested in research on treatments for various psychopathology among youth. She is currently providing diagnostic evaluations and evidence-based psychotherapy to children and adolescents as part of ongoing research in the lab.

Marilyn Cyr

Marilyn Cyr, PhD, PsyD

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Cyr received a MSc and a PhD in experimental psychology and a PsyD in clinical psychology from the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM). Her graduate research focused on examining the role of brain neurochemical systems in cognition and behavior, using various techniques, such as PET imaging. Her clinical predoctoral internship focused on the treatment of patients with pathological eating and patients with OCD. In recent years, she has developed an interest in the neurobiology and treatment of disorders characterized by deficits in self-regulation (inhibition, emotion regulation, and impulse control), particularly eating disorders.

Martine Fontaine

Martine Fontaine, MA

Lab Manager

Martine obtained a BS in psychology from Paul Valéry University of Montpellier, where she also completed the first year of a MA in clinical psychology and mental health. She began training at the Institute of Family Therapy in France before moving to the US. Martine began volunteering for Dr. Marsh in 2011 and learning neuroimaging techniques. She is now responsible for acquiring multi-modal imaging data from our research participants with bulimia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and healthy control participants. She is also responsible for processing the anatomical data acquired for these participants. Martine is currently expanding her knowledge of computerized brain models by beginning an introduction to FreeSurfer (a software program). These diverse experiences are allowing Martine to explore her research interests prior to pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology.

Charlotte Quincoses, BA

Research Assistant

Charlotte graduated from Barnard College in 2018 with a BA in Psychology, focused on child psychopathology. In their previous position, they were Supervisor for the Hepatitis C program at Montefiore Medical Center's Division of Substance Use. Currently, Charlotte is the study coordinator for the MRI portion of the COVID-19 Mother and Infant Outcomes (COMBO) Study. They hope to get a PhD in clinical psychology focused on the dissemination and implantation of evidenced-based treatments into low socioeconomic communities.

Sarah Pieper

Sarah Pieper, BA

Research Coordinator
(646) 774-5868

Sarah graduated from Smith College in 2018 with a BA in psychology and a minor in education and child study. She has worked with children with developmental disorders in the past and, while at Smith, she worked in a research lab focused on child language acquisition. Those experiences clarified her desire to work in research involving children and their mental health. She is interested in research that investigates the mechanisms of psychiatric disorders and how to effectively treat them in children and adolescents. Her current role at Dr. Marsh’s lab involves coordinating pediatric fMRI studies and clinical trials that examine the neural underpinnings of OCD and anxiety. Sarah is involved in the collection, processing, and analysis of both neuroimaging and clinical data. She plans to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology in the future.

Sydney Taylor, BS

Research Assistant

Sydney graduated magna cum laude from Fordham University with a double major in Psychology and Sociology. She previously worked as a Research Assistant in Dr. Amy Roy’s Pediatric Emotional Regulation Lab at Fordham University on a longitudinal study focused on Severe Temper Outbursts (STOs) in children and adolescents. Before joining the Cognitive Development and Neuroimaging Laboratory team, she worked in investor relations at a NYC based IR and PR firm that worked primarily with biotechnology and biomedical device development. Within Dr. Marsh’s Cognitive Development and Neuroimaging Laboratory, Sydney works as the Project Coordinator for the Inhibitory Control longitudinal study, which works with mother-child dyads. She is interested in pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology with a focus on neuroimaging in the future. 

TRAINEES

Katherine Dimitropoulou, PhD

Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation & Regenerative Medicine

Tracey Reznik, BA

MD/PhD student

Tracey is an MD-PhD student at Columbia University currently pursuing her doctoral research with Dr. Marsh and Dr. H. Blair Simpson. She received a BA in Economics from Harvard University. Her current research focuses on the use of machine learning methods and resting state fMRI in the diagnosis and classification of psychiatric disorders such as OCD.

Past Lab Members

Mirjana Domakonda, MD

Mirjana Domakonda, MD, is a clinical researcher and child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist at Hartford Hospital and an adjunct assistant professor at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Domakonda worked with the Marsh Lab as a postdoctoral fellow from 2016 to January, 2018, pursuing translational research on the development of experimental therapeutics for childhood psychiatric disorders.

Jenna Patterson, BA

Jenna Patterson graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University in 2020 with a BA in psychology. As an undergraduate, she worked as a volunteer research assistant at the Center for OCD and Related Disorders, where she worked on a study using fMRI to assess neural circuits associated with OCD. At Dr. Marsh’s lab she was involved in coordinating pediatric fMRI studies and clinical trials that examine the neural underpinnings of OCD and anxiety. Jenna's research interests focus on better understanding the connection between brain abnormalities and the development of obsessive compulsive disorders. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Counseling at Northeastern University.

Lana Khamash, BA

Lana Khamash graduated from Columbia University in 2018 with a BA in psychology. As an undergraduate, she worked as a research assistant in the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Lab, where she studied early life adversity and its relationship to neurodevelopment and psychopathology. Her previous role at Dr. Marsh’s lab involved coordinating pediatric fMRI studies and clinical trials that examine the neural underpinnings of OCD and anxiety. Lana was involved in the collection, processing, and analysis of both neuroimaging and clinical data, and she is interested in employing this understanding of the mechanisms behind psychiatric disorders to inform the development of early intervention strategies. In the future, she hopes to pursue a doctoral degree in clinical psychology.

Sophie Schiff, BA

Sophie Schiff graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014 with a BA in cognitive science. As an undergraduate, Sophie worked as a research assistant in a psychology lab studying neuroeconomics. After two years at Horizon Media, Sophie joined Dr. Marsh’s lab where she coordinated pediatric and adult fMRI studies on OCD and was involved in the collection, processing, and analysis of neuroimaging data for Dr. Marsh's projects. Sophie is interested in utilizing fMRI to understand the mechanisms underlying anxiety and other disorders and to investigate the effect of current therapies on brain function. Sophie is currently pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology at CUNY’s Graduate Center at Queens College. 

Mihaela Stefan, PhD

Mihaela received her BA in communication sciences from the University of Bucharest, followed by an MA from SNSPA Bucharest in communication sciences. After graduating from university, Mihaela joined a group that founded one of the first media monitoring agencies in Romania and developed expertise in content-analysis methods and research software (most of the social and psychological research had been previously discouraged due to the political context). She came to the USA in 2007 and began volunteering at NYSPI in 2010 and learning about neuroimaging research, specifically MRI data acquisition and processing. Mihaela began working with Dr. Marsh in 2012 and was the lab manager of the Cognitive Development and Neuroimaging Lab. She oversaw all MRI data acquisition, data storage, and anatomical image processing for the lab, contributing to the scientific research as well. She also trained and coordinated the activities for volunteers and other research assistants.

Emily Steinberg, BA

Emily graduated from the University of Michigan in 2015 with a BA in psychology. Emily first joined NYSPI as a volunteer at the Pediatric Anxiety and Mood Research Clinic (PAMRC), where she worked on a study exploring antibiotic augmentation to SRI medication for youth with treatment-resistant OCD. Emily spent two years as coordinator of Dr. Marsh's research studies, where she developed a particular interest in examining post-treatment changes in the neural circuits implicated in pediatric OCD, as well as family factors that may influence children's treatment trajectories. Emily is currently pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology at Fordham University.

Kate Terranova, BA

Kate graduated from George Washington University in 2012 with a BA in psychology. In our lab, Kate coordinated an NIMH multimodal imagining study of adolescents with bulimia nervosa. She is now a third-year graduate student at Fordham University's Counseling PhD Program. She has a continued interest in eating disorders and has chosen to focus her master's thesis research on women's recovery from bulimia.

Lauren Thomas, EdM, FCSP, PhD 

Lauren is currently in the Combined School-Clinical Child Psychology PsyD program at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. She graduated from the George Washington University in 2012 with a BA in psychology and a secondary degree in business administration. As an undergraduate, Lauren was a research assistant in the Health Cognitions and Behavior Lab, and studied college students' thoughts and beliefs about health issues (e.g., skin cancer). Lauren went on to graduate from Teachers College in 2015 with an EdM in school psychology and a MA in educational psychology: schooling. She spent three years as a research assistant coordinating Dr. Amy Margolis's research studies, which investigate learning disabilities in children.

Marsh Lab Collaborators

Youth Treatment & Evaluation of Anxiety & Mood Program (Y-TEAM): Participants in Dr. Marsh's pediatric OCD studies receive treatment in this clinic at no cost.

Kate Fitzgerald, MDfrom the University of Michigan is collaborating with Dr. Marsh on an NIMH-funded collaborative R01 of children (ages 7 to 12 years) with obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

H. Blair Simpson, MD, is director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at NYSPI. She collaborates with Dr. Marsh and her lab on imaging studies of adults with OCD.

Moira Rynn, MD, is director of the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University. She collaborates with Dr. Marsh and her lab on imaging studies of children and adolescents with OCD.

Laura Berner, PhD, is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at UCSD. Dr. Marsh is a mentor on her research examining the neural correlates of self-regulatory control in bulimia nervosa (BN). In addition, Laura collaborates on ongoing studies of individuals with BN in the Cognitive Development and Neuroimaging Lab.

Guillermo Horga, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Division of Translational Imaging at NYSPI and CUMC. He uses fMRI to study the neural computations involved in reinforcement learning, sensory learning, cognitive control, and other higher-order cognitive functions, and how deficits in these computations may lead to various mental illnesses, with a particular focus on psychotic disorders. Drs. Horga and Marsh collaborate on most fMRI studies conducted in Dr. Marsh's lab.