Sherral A. Devine, PhD
Research Associate Professor, Anatomy & Neurobiology
Biography
Dr. Devine earned her BA in psychology at DePauw University, and then her MA and PhD in clinical psychology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She completed her clinical internship at the Boston VA Medical Center/Tufts University Consortium and then completed a three-year postdoctoral program in clinical neuropsychology, providing services to veterans and civilians with a wide range of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Dr. Devine has worked in a research setting since completing her postdoctoral work, and she has also worked intermittently in clinical settings, evaluating individuals with a variety of cognitive disorders. These clients have been as young as 12, but Dr. Devine’s primary interest is in a geriatric population.
In 1999, Dr. Devine started working as a clinical neuropsychologist at the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), where research on cognitive functioning was greatly expanding. Through the years, she has collaborated with Dr. Rhoda Au in applying the Boston Process Approach (BPA) to research using neuropsychological tests. BPA goes beyond the typically used quantitative scores, adding the wealth of information available in qualitative aspects of an individual’s performance on cognitive tests. Although widely used in clinical settings, research using BPA is severely limited, given the challenges of operationalizing qualitative aspects of an individual’s behavior while taking cognitive tests. Dr. Devine has especially enjoyed this challenge, as well as providing training and supervision to testers to ensure reliable and consistent coding of behavior. This has been important because of the large number of testers who have been involved with FHS over the years. In addition to BPA generally, Dr. Devine been especially interested in examining the extensive information that can be gleaned from the Clock Drawing Test, a quick and simple task that involves asking an individual to draw a clock and set the hands to a specified time, and to copy a pre-drawn clock. Dr. Devine is involved with the research at FHS into identification of cognitive biomarkers, especially those caught digitally (i.e., with audio recorders and digital pens), that may reveal risk in the very early (i.e., pre- pre-clinical) stages of dementia.
Other Positions
- Research Assistant Professor, Neurology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
- Center Faculty Member, Anatomy & Neurobiology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Education
- Bowling Green State University, PhD
- Bowling Green State University, MA
- DePauw University, BA
Publications
- Published on 3/2/2025
Yang J, Ding H, Li Y, Ang TFA, Devine S, Liu Y, Qiu W, Au R, Ma J, Liu C. Association of mid-age Life's Essential 8 score with digital cognitive performance and incident Alzheimer's disease: The Framingham Heart Study. J Alzheimers Dis. 2025 Mar; 104(2):498-508. PMID: 40025717.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/13/2025
Kang M, Ang TFA, Devine SA, Sherva R, Mukherjee S, Trittschuh EH, Gibbons LE, Scollard P, Lee M, Choi SE, Klinedinst B, Nakano C, Dumitrescu LC, Hohman TJ, Cuccaro ML, Saykin AJ, Kukull WA, Bennett DA, Wang LS, Mayeux RP, Haines JL, Pericak-Vance MA, Schellenberg GD, Crane PK, Au R, Lunetta KL, Mez J, Farrer LA. Genome-wide pleiotropy analysis of longitudinal blood pressure and harmonized cognitive performance measures. medRxiv. 2025 Feb 13. PMID: 39990565.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/15/2024
Yuan J, Tao Q, Ang TFA, Liu C, Devine S, Auerbach SH, Mez J, Farrer LA, Qiu WQ, Au R. The Relationship between Framingham Stroke Risk Profile on Incident Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease: A 40-Year Follow-Up Study Highlighting Female Vulnerability. Ann Neurol. 2024 Dec; 96(6):1124-1134. PMID: 39404028.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/1/2024
Kang M, Li C, Mahajan A, Spat-Lemus J, Durape S, Chen J, Gurnani AS, Devine S, Auerbach SH, Ang TFA, Sherva R, Qiu WQ, Lunetta KL, Au R, Farrer LA, Mez J. Subjective Cognitive Decline Plus and Longitudinal Assessment and Risk for Cognitive Impairment. JAMA Psychiatry. 2024 Oct 01; 81(10):993-1002. PMID: 38959008.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 3/27/2024
Ding H, Liu C, Li Y, Ang TFA, Devine S, Liu Y, Au R, Doraiswamy PM. Sex-specific blood biomarkers linked to memory changes in middle-aged adults: The Framingham Heart Study. Alzheimers Dement (Amst). 2024; 16(1):e12569. PMID: 38545543.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/16/2024
De Anda-Duran I, Sunderaraman P, Searls E, Moukaled S, Jin X, Popp Z, Karjadi C, Hwang PH, Ding H, Devine S, Shih LC, Low S, Lin H, Kolachalama VB, Bazzano L, Libon DJ, Au R. Comparing Cognitive Tests and Smartphone-Based Assessment in 2 US Community-Based Cohorts. J Am Heart Assoc. 2024 Jan 16; 13(2):e032733. PMID: 38226519.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/16/2024
Sunderaraman P, De Anda-Duran I, Karjadi C, Peterson J, Ding H, Devine SA, Shih LC, Popp Z, Low S, Hwang PH, Goyal K, Hathaway L, Monteverde J, Lin H, Kolachalama VB, Au R. Design and Feasibility Analysis of a Smartphone-Based Digital Cognitive Assessment Study in the Framingham Heart Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2024 Jan 16; 13(2):e031348. PMID: 38226510.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/26/2023
Ferretti MT, Ding H, Au R, Liu C, Devine S, Auerbach S, Mez J, Gurnani A, Liu Y, Santuccione A, Ang TFA. Maximizing utility of neuropsychological measures in sex-specific predictive models of incident Alzheimer's disease in the Framingham Heart Study. Alzheimers Dement. 2024 Feb; 20(2):1112-1122. PMID: 37882354.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/22/2023
Kang M, Ang TFA, Devine SA, Sherva R, Mukherjee S, Trittschuh EH, Gibbons LE, Scollard P, Lee M, Choi SE, Klinedinst B, Nakano C, Dumitrescu LC, Durant A, Hohman TJ, Cuccaro ML, Saykin AJ, Kukull WA, Bennett DA, Wang LS, Mayeux RP, Haines JL, Pericak-Vance MA, Schellenberg GD, Crane PK, Au R, Lunetta KL, Mez JB, Farrer LA. A genome-wide search for pleiotropy in more than 100,000 harmonized longitudinal cognitive domain scores. Mol Neurodegener. 2023 Jun 22; 18(1):40. PMID: 37349795.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/1/2023
Scollard P, Choi SE, Lee ML, Mukherjee S, Trittschuh EH, Sanders RE, Gibbons LE, Joshi P, Devine S, Au R, Dams-O'Connor K, Saykin AJ, Seshadri S, Beiser A, Aparicio HJ, Salinas J, Gonzales MM, Pase MP, Ghosh S, Finney R, Mez J, Crane PK. Ceiling effects and differential measurement precision across calibrated cognitive scores in the Framingham Study. Neuropsychology. 2023 May; 37(4):383-397. PMID: 37276135.
Read at: PubMed
View 32 more publications: View full profile at BUMC