Early Neuroimaging, Neuroimmune, and Neuropsychology (N³) Lab

Location and Contact Information

Early N³ Lab

622 West 168th St

New York, NY 10032

United States

n3earlylab@cumc.columbia.edu(link sends e-mail)

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Principal Investigator

Marisa N Spann, PhD

The overarching goal of Early Neuroimaging, Neuroimmune, and Neuropsychology Lab (Early N³ Lab) is to identify early immune, brain, and neuropsychological antecedents of childhood psychiatric risk to reduce the time to intervention for young children. This is accomplished through two complementary lines of study involving national and international birth cohorts, and clinical samples of pregnant women. Dr. Marisa Spann currently has a NIMH R01 to study the effects of maternal immune activation (infection and inflammation) on early brain and emotion regulation development in a Finnish national birth cohort and a newly recruited sample of pregnancy women at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She also has another NIMH R01 to identify circuit-based markers of regulatory deficits that are passed inter-generationally and persist from infancy to early childhood.

Lab Members

Director

Marisa N. Spann, PhD, MPH
- Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry)
- mns2125@cumc.columbia.edu(link sends e-mail)
Marisa Spann, PhD, MPH, is a Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Medical Psychology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). Dr. Spann is a clinical neuropsychologist with specialty training in developmental neuroimaging and perinatal epidemiology. She obtained her PhD in clinical psychology at George Washington University. She went on to pursue a clinical neuropsychology postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine, an MPH at Yale School of Public Health, and a NIH-funded T32 research postdoctoral fellowship in Translational Child Psychiatry at CUIMC.

The overarching goal of Dr. Spann’s research is to identify early immune, brain, and neuropsychological antecedents of childhood psychiatric risk to reduce the time to intervention for young children. She accomplishes this through two complementary lines of study involving national and international birth cohorts, and clinical samples of pregnant women at CUIMC. Dr. Spann is the director of the Early N³ Lab.

Research Manager

Sanjana Inala, MPH
- si2450@cumc.columbia.edu(link sends e-mail)

Research Assistants

Kayla Delapenha, B.S.
- kd2966@cumc.columbia.edu(link sends e-mail)
Iqra Ali, B.A.
- ia2584@cumc.columbia.edu(link sends e-mail)
Victoria Mulligan, M.S.
- vm2807@cumc.columbia.edu(link sends e-mail)

Affiliate Researchers

Bin Cheng, PhD
- Professor of Biostatistics at the Columbia University Medical Center
Dr. Bin Cheng's research includes adaptive methods in clinical trials, dose finding, precision medicine, mobile health, pharmaceutical statistics, longitudinal and clustered data modeling, mixed-effects and multilevel modeling, and clustering analysis. He collaborates primarily with dentists, neurologists, and cardiologists.
Grace Liu, MS
- Senior Data Manager (Division of Behavioral Medicine) at the Columbia University Medical Center
Grace Liu, MS is the senior data manager in the Division of Behavioral Medicine.
Vinus Mahmoodi, PhD
- Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology (in Psychiatry) at the Columbia University Medical Center
Venus Mahmoodi, PhD is a clinical psychologist, researcher, and advocate for women’s mental health. She is an Assistant Professor of Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry) at Columbia University and an Assistant Attending Psychologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Mahmoodi is a clinical researcher in the Early Neuroimaging, Neuroimmune, and Neuropsychology (Early N³) Lab, where her research focuses on the perinatal experiences of mothers, focusing mental health, acculturation and discrimination, and biological sequelae. Her research also focuses on perinatal depression in Muslim women, including treatments that integrate Islamic spirituality. In addition to research, she provides clinical care to women across the reproductive lifespan in The Women’s Program at CUIMC. Dr. Mahmoodi is also an adjunct faculty member at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she teaches graduate level courses in perinatal mental health and mentors students in research. Dr. Mahmoodi completed her PhD in clinical psychology with an emphasis in women’s neuroscience at Palo Alto University and Stanford University. She completed her APA-accredited predoctoral internship at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in NYC and her postdoctoral training at the Seleni Institute.
Vincenzo Lauriola, PhD
- Assistant Professor of Behavioral Medicine (in Psychiatry) at the Columbia University Medical Center
Vincenzo Lauriola, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Behavioral Medicine (in Psychiatry) at Columbia University.
Xuejun Hao, PhD
- Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurobiology (in Psychiatry) at the Columbia University Medical Center
Xuejun Hao, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurobiology (in Psychiatry) at Columbia University.

Alumni

Erica Lambeth, BA
Antonette Davids, BA
Kristiana Barbato, BA
Ezra Aydin, PhD
Isabelle Mueller, PhD
Ayanna Gilmore, MA
Manya Balachander, BS
Sanjana Murthy, BS
Shely Khaikin, BA
Cristin Holland, PhD
Rachel Ababio, BA

Select Publications

Spann MN, Bansal R, Hao, X, Rosen, TS, Peterson BS (2020). Prenatal socioeconomic status and social support are associated with neonatal brain morphology, toddler language and psychiatric symptoms(link is external and opens in a new window). Child Neuropsychology, 26(2):170-188. PMID: 31385559 PMCID: PMC6930975
Spann MN, Cheslack‐Postava K, Brown AS (2020). The association of serologically documented maternal thyroid conditions during pregnancy with bipolar disorder in offspring(link is external and opens in a new window). Bipolar Disorders, 22(6):621-628. PMID: 31758834
Scheinost D, Spann MN, McDonough L, Peterson BS, Monk C (2020). Associations between different dimensions of prenatal distress, neonatal hippocampal connectivity, and infant memory(link is external and opens in a new window). Neuropsychopharmacology, 45(8):1272–1279. PMID: 32305039 PMCID: PMC7297970
Spann MN, Scheinost D, Feng T, Barbato K, Lee S, Monk C, Peterson BS (2020). Association of maternal prepregnancy body mass index with fetal growth and neonatal thalamic brain connectivity among adolescent and young women(link is external and opens in a new window). JAMA Network Open, 3(11):e2024661. PMID: 33141162 PMCID: PMC7610195
Spann MN, Timonen-Siovio L, Suominen A, Cheslack-Postava K, McKeague IW, Sourander A, Brown AS (2019). Proband and familial autoimmune diseases are associated with proband diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders(link is external and opens in a new window). Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 58(5):496-505. PMID: 30975444 PMCID: PMC6631342
Spann MN, Monk C, Scheinost D, Peterson BS (2018). Maternal immune activation during the third trimester is associated with neonatal functional connectivity of the salience network and fetal to toddler behavior(link is external and opens in a new window). Journal of Neuroscience, 38(11):2877-2886. PMID: 29487127 PMCID: PMC5852665
Noble S, Spann MN, Tokoglu F, Shen X, Constable RT, Scheinost D (2017). Influences on the test–retest reliability of functional connectivity MRI and its relationship with behavioral utility(link is external and opens in a new window). Cerebral Cortex, 27(11): 5415-5429. PMID: 28968754 PMCID: PMC6248395
Spann MN, Sourander A, Surcel HM, Hinkka‐Yli‐Salomäki S, Brown AS (2017). Prenatal toxoplasmosis antibody and childhood autism(link is external and opens in a new window). Autism Research, 10(5):769-777. PMID: 27874276 PMCID: PMC7256017
Spann MN, Serino D, Bansal R, Hao X, Nati G, Toth Z, Walsh K, Chiang I, Sanchez-Peña J, Liu J, Kangarlu A, Liu F, Duan Y, Shova S, Fried J, Tau GZ, Rosen TS, Peterson BS (2015). Morphological features of the neonatal brain following exposure to regional anesthesia during labor and delivery(link is external and opens in a new window). Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 33(2):213-221. PMID: 25179140 PMCID: PMC4293264
Spann MN, Bansal R, Rosen TS Peterson BS (2014). Morphological features of the neonatal brain supports development of subsequent cognitive, language, and motor abilities(link is external and opens in a new window). Human Brain Mapping, 35(9):4459-4474. PMID: 24615961 PMCID: PMC4188825
Spann MN, Mayes LC, Kalma, JH, Guiney J, Womer FY, Pittman B, Mazure CM, Sinha R, Blumberg HP (2012). Childhood abuse and neglect and cognitive flexibility in adolescents(link is external and opens in a new window). Child Neuropsychology, 18(2):182-189. PMID: 21942637 PMCID: PMC3326262
For a complete list of publications, click here.(link is external and opens in a new window)

Show more Publications

Early Neuroimaging, Neuroimmune, and Neuropsychology (N³) Lab

Location and Contact Information

Principal Investigator

Lab Members

Director

Research Manager

Sanjana Inala, MPH

Research Assistants

Kayla Delapenha, B.S.

Iqra Ali, B.A.

Victoria Mulligan, M.S.

Affiliate Researchers

Bin Cheng, PhD

Grace Liu, MS

Vincenzo Lauriola, PhD

Alumni

Erica Lambeth, BA

Antonette Davids, BA

Kristiana Barbato, BA

Ezra Aydin, PhD

Isabelle Mueller, PhD

Ayanna Gilmore, MA

Manya Balachander, BS

Sanjana Murthy, BS

Shely Khaikin, BA

Cristin Holland, PhD

Rachel Ababio, BA

Select Publications