Emily S. Sharp, PhD

Emily Sharp, PhD, is a neuropsychologist at Yale Medicine with a specialty focus in memory disorders and Parkinson’s disease.

Dr. Sharp uses specialized neuropsychological measures to assess patients’ cognitive and emotional functioning, which provides neurologists and primary care physicians with important data for diagnosis and treatment planning.

“Neuropsychological testing allows us to see how a patient is doing within each domain of thinking, like memory, language, and attention. And those domains of thinking tend to correlate with different disorders. That can help the neurologist or referring provider better understand what’s going on,” she says.

Dr. Sharp spends several hours with patients, and interviews family members and caregivers, to form a complete picture of a patient’s current abilities. This information is then compiled into a detailed report with recommendations for the referring physician.

Dr. Sharp completed her PhD at the University of Southern California before finishing a two-year neuropsychology fellowship in Boston. Soon after, she joined Yale Medicine.

In addition to seeing patients, Dr. Sharp conducts research on the relationship between cognitive engagement and cognitive decline. She has a specific interest in interventions designed to identify, delay, and reduce the burden of cognitive impairment. She is a member of the clinical core faculty for the Yale Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.