Ashita Gurnani

Dr. Ashita Gurnani attained her Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a focus in neuropsychology and geropsychology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She then completed a two-year, post-doctoral fellowship in adult neuropsychology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Massachusetts Mental Health Center, affiliated with Harvard Medical School. She joined BUSM in 2020 as Research Assistant Professor of Neurology and clinical neuropsychologist of the Brain Aging Program at the Framingham Heart Study.

Dr. Gurnani’s broad research interests include cognitive aging and neurodegenerative disorders with an emphasis on early detection of dementia and differential diagnosis of underlying etiologies through the use of advanced psychometrics, test properties of cognitive tests, and process variables. Specifically, she developed a novel cognitive screening instrument, the Colorado Cognitive Assessment (CoCA), that was designed to be scored with advanced factor analytic techniques and to be unbiased as possible with regard to demographic differences while also providing comprehensive coverage of cognitive domains and producing data relevant to interpretation using the Boston Process Approach. A current emphasis is the use of digital measures and remote neuropsychological testing to determine cognitive status. A new and evolving research area is understanding the cognitive impact of COVID-19 and the role of digital measures in facilitating that process.

To read more about Ashita’s work click here.