Sussman Lab
Location and Contact Information
Principal Investigator
Our lab’s research program aims to characterize how exposure to childhood adversities, including exposure to area-level factors such as economic polarization, leads to changes in cognitive processes such as reward-related decision making, via altered neurodevelopment, and how these changes lead to increased risk for negative life outcomes such as increased substance use.
We use multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computational modeling of task performance to examine how exposure to adversities during childhood impact the development of decision making and related brain activity. The long-term goal of our research program is to suggest novel approaches to the prevention and intervention of negative outcomes related to early life exposure to adversities, e.g. cognitive therapies for components of decision making impacted by childhood exposures.
The Sussman Lab works with the Center for Intergenerational Psychiatry and collaborates with the Boricua Youth Study.
Lab Members
Karen Balbin Vahos
Karen Balbin Vahos joined the Sussman Lab and the G2 Preteen SR Study team, within the Center for Intergenerational Psychiatry at Columbia University in March of 2025. She graduated in 2023 with a BA in Psychology from Queens College. During her last semester, she conducted a research study on the different risk factors related to psychosis under the supervision of Dr. Usha Barahmand. While concluding her research, Karen highlighted the significant impact adverse childhood experiences have on the early-onset of psychosis. In addition to researching the effects of childhood adversities, Karen also has a special interest in studying transgenerational epigenetic inheritance and how exposure to environmental factors in childhood such as stress and pollutants can trigger epigenetic changes. Beyond her research background, Karen also obtained her therapist certification in Applied Behavior Analysis in 2024. As a therapist, she has worked with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder by assisting in behavior intervention plans, skill acquisition, and community integration. Karen plans to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology in hopes of expanding research and offering counseling services to both Latine and LGBTQIA+ youth.
Dr. Quentin (Q) Reynolds
Dr. Quentin (Q) Reynolds is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow at New York Presbyterian and Research-track chief for the Shaffer Scholars Research Program, and a recent graduate of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel - Adult Psychiatry Residency Program in New York City. His interests include medical education and clinical work and research in the diagnosis and treatment of developmental trauma and complex PTSD in adolescents. Originally born and raised in North Carolina, he received his undergraduate degree in Psychology, minor in Neuroscience at University of North Carolina at Asheville, and attended University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
Siqi Wang
Siqi Wang joined the Sussman Lab as a Data Scientist in January 2023. She holds a BS in Data Science from New York University and just completed her MPH in Biostatistics at Columbia University. At the Sussman Lab, Siqi contributes to computational modeling, causal inference analysis, and large-scale data analysis using the ABCD Study dataset. Her current projects focus on understanding the mental health impacts of exclusionary discipline and adverse childhood experiences. Siqi plans to pursue a PhD in data science or computational public health.
Lab Alumni
William Campo
- Research Assistant
William Campo joined the Sussman Lab and the G2 Preteen Study team, within the Center for Intergenerational Psychiatry, in November of 2020 as a research assistant and has assisted in the coordination and completion of clinical interviews and MRI scans. He hopes that this study can fill gaps in the literature connecting parent experiences to those of their children. He received his B.A. in 2019 from Manhattan College and his M.A. in 2022 from the City College of New York, where he majored in psychology. As a masters student, William completed his thesis, which investigated classic psychedelic substances, psychological flexibility, decentering, mystical experiences, ego-dissolution, and insight. The aim of his thesis study was to further investigate potential associations between these variables, in which some have previously been found to be important in treating certain psychiatric disorders. He is planning to pursue a doctoral degree in Psychology.
Lancy (Xiaohe) Cao
Lancy (Xiaohe) Cao is a Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology Program at Stony Brook University. She graduated from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities in 2022 and previously studied at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute under the supervision of Dr. Tamara Sussman. Her research focuses on probabilistic learning and perceptual decision-making in internalizing disorders within the predictive processing framework. She specializes in computational modeling (e.g., reinforcement learning), neuroimaging techniques (e.g., fMRI), and peripheral physiological measures (e.g., EMG).
Mia Lancelotti
- Research Assistant
Since leaving the Sussman Lab, Mia Lancellotti graduated from Hunter College with her MsED in Mental Health Counseling. She reports that her work in the Sussman Lab was not only helpful to my transition into clinical work but also helped inspire her desire to work with individuals in exploring their intergenerational patterns/trauma. She currently works with people with a complex trauma history.
Albert Wakhloo
- Research Assistant
Albert Wakhloo is a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program at Columbia University under the joint supervision of Dmitriy Aronov and Larry Abbott. As a member of the Aronov and Abbott labs, he is modeling memory-related neural activity in the hippocampus of the black-capped chickadee, a food-caching bird. He is broadly interested in memory, synaptic plasticity, and statistical mechanics approaches to neural network theory.
Select Publications
Gonçalves, P. D., Duarte, C. S., Corbeil, T., Ramos-Olazagasti, M. A., Sussman, T., Talati, A., ... & Martins, S. S. (2023). Adverse childhood experiences and risk patterns of alcohol and cannabis co-use: a longitudinal study of Puerto Rican youth. Journal of Adolescent Health, 73(3), 421-427.
Pagliaccio, D., Cao, X., & Sussman, T. J. (2023). No meta-analytic evidence for risks due to prenatal magnetic resonance imaging in animal models. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 8(6), 592-598.
Saunders, D., Sussman, T., Corbeil, T., Canino, G., Bird, H., Alegria, M., & Duarte, C. S. (2023). Development, religious affiliation, and social context: Substance use disorders in Puerto Rican transitional age youth. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, 1076869.
Selected publications in reverse chronological order (*corresponding author). Read a full list of publications
Sussman, T.J.*, Posner, J., Jackowski, A.P.; Correa, A., Hoffmann, E.V., Peruzzi, F.P.O., Grecco, F.R., Nitzsche, S.H., Mesquita, M.E., Foester, B.U., di Cillo, F.B., Mello, M.F., & Milani, A.C.C. (2022). The Relationship between Recent PTSD Secondary to Sexual Assault, Hippocampal Volume and Resting State Functional Connectivity in Adolescent Girls. Neurobiology of Stress, 100441
Sussman, T.J.*, Baker, B. H., Wakhloo, A. J., Gillet, V., Abdelouahab, N., Whittingstall, K., Lepage, J.F., St-Cyr, L., Boivin, A., Gagnon, A., Baccarelli, A.A., Takser, L. & Posner, J. (2021). The relationship between persistent organic pollutants and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder phenotypes: Evidence from task-based neural activity in an observational study of a community sample of Canadian mother-child dyads. Environmental Research, 112593. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.112593
Im, S., Marder, M. A., Imbriano, G., Sussman, T.J., & Mohanty, A. (2021). Effects of a Brief Mindfulness-Based Attentional Intervention on Threat-Related Perceptual Decision-Making. Mindfulness, 12(4), 959-969. DOI: 10.1007/s12671-020-01562-9
Margolis, A. E., Pagliaccio, D., Ramphal, B., Banker, S., Thomas, L., Robinson, M., Honda, M., Sussman, T.J., Posner, J., Kannan, K. Herbsman, J., Rauh, V, & Marsh, R. (2021). Prenatal environmental tobacco smoke exposure alters children’s cognitive control circuitry: A preliminary study. Environment International, 155, 106516.
Sussman, T.J.*, Santaella-Tenorio, J., Duarte, C. S., Wall, M. M., Ramos- Olazagasti, M., Suglia, S. F., Canino, G., Bird, H. & Martins, S. S. (2020). Do trajectories of sensation seeking vary by sex and child maltreatment subtypes?. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 0886260520943722. DOI: 10.1177/0886260520943722. PMID: 32783490.