SHAREE N. LIGHT, PH.D.
Dr. Light received her PhD in clinical psychology and Neuroscience from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and completed post-doctoral training in clinical neuropsychology at
the University of Michigan Medical School. Thereafter she completed a post-doctoral
master's program in Clinical Psychopharmacology with the Chicago School of Professional
Psychology.
Dr. Light has also served on the clinical faculty of Emory University, Vanderbilt University,
and LSU Schools of Medicine. She was Director of Neuropsychology at New Hampshire
Hospital while on the clinical faculty at Dartmouth. Presently, she is as associate
professor at Howard University where she instructs neuropsychological assessment to
doctoral students. Her areas of expertise include dementia, mild cognitive impairment,
brain injuries, neurodevelopmental disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), ADHD,
and mood disorders such as Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), treatment-resistant MDD,
Bipolar Disorder, and anxiety disorders.
In addition, Dr. Light has expertise in cognitive rehabilitation. Cognitive Rehabilitation
Therapies (CRT) include several therapies designed to retrain or preserve thinking abilities.
The focus of therapy can be memory, concentration, attention, learning, planning,
judgment, or a combination of these.
Overall, Dr. Light is interested in helping patients not only lessen negative emotions and the
impact of cognitive dysfunction, but also increase positive emotions and capacity for such
pursuits as work or hobbies to enhance quality of life, and therefore promote brain health
and optimal cognitive functioning.
Dr. Light is a member of the International Neuropsychological Society (INS), International
Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), and was associate faculty member of the
Neuroscience Institute "Brains and Behavior" Program. She received several Training Grant
Fellowships from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and was a Gates Millenium
Scholar for several years at the Bill Gates Foundation.
Favorite quotation:
"Be a rainbow in someone else's cloud"
-Maya AngelouPublications...
Light, S.N., Coan J.A., Goldsmith, H.H. & Davidson, R.J. (2009). Dynamic variation in
pleasure in children predicts non-linear change in lateral frontal brain electrical activity.
Developmental Psychology, 45, 525-533.
Light, S.N., Coan J.A., Zahn-Waxler, C., Frye, C., Goldsmith, H.H. & Davidson, R.J. (2009).
Empathy is associated with dynamic change in prefrontal brain electrical activity during
positive emotion in children. Child Development, 80, 1210-1231.
Heller A. S., Johnstone, T., Shackman, A. S., Light, S.N., Peterson, M., Kolden, G., Kalin, N.,& Davidson, R. J. (2009). Reduced capacity to sustain positive emotion in major depression
reflects diminished maintenance of fronto-striatal brain activation. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, 106, 22445-22450.
Light, S.N., Heller, A.S., Johnstone, T., Kolden, G.G., Peterson, M.J., Kalin, N. & Davidson,
R.J. (2011). Reduced ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activity while inhibiting positive affect is
associated with improvement in hedonic capacity after 8 weeks of antidepressant
treatment in Major Depressive Disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 70, 962-968.
Heller, A.S., Johnstone, T., Light, S.N., Peterson, M., Kolden, G., Kalin, N. & Davidson, R.J.
(2012). Relationships between changes in sustained fronto-striatal connectivity and
positive affect in Major Depression resulting from anti-depressant treatment. American
Journal of Psychiatry.
Light, S.N., Moran Z.D.*, Swander, L.*, Le, V.*, Cage, B., Burghy, C., Westbrook, C., Greishar,
L. & Davidson, R.J. (2015). Electromyographically assessed empathic concern and
empathic happiness predict increased prosocial behavior in adults. Biological Psychology,
104, 116-129.
Drag, L.L., Light, S.N., Langenecker, S.A., Hazlett, K.E., Wilde, E.A., Welsh, R., Steinberg,
B.A. & Bieliauskas, L.A. (2016). Patterns of frontoparietal activation as a marker for
unsuccessful visuospatial processing in healthy aging. Brain Imaging and Behavior.
Light, S.N., Bieliauskas, L.A., Zubieta, J-K. (2017). “Top-down" mu-opioid system in
humans: mu-opioid receptors in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and mediate the
relationship between hedonic tone and executive function in Major Depressive Disorder
(MDD). Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences.
Gooding, D.C., Zahn-Waxler, C., Light, S.N., Kestenbaum, C., & Erlenmeyer-Kimling, L.
(2018). Affective indicators of risk for adulthood psychopathology during childhood:
Findings from the New York High-Risk Project. Journal of Psychiatry and Brain Science.
Mirabito, G.*, Taiwo, Z.*, Bezdeck, M.* & Light, S.N. (2019). Fronto-striatal activity predicts
anhedonia and positive empathy subtypes. Brain Imaging and Behavior.
Light, S.N., Bieliauskas, L.A., & Taylor, S. (2019). Measuring change in anhedonia using the
“Happy Faces Task" pre- to post- rTMS treatment in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).
Translational Psychiatry.
Light, S.N. (2019). The heterogeneity of empathy: Possible treatment for anhedonia?
Frontiers Psychiatry.
Taiwo, Z.*, Bezdeck, M.*, Mirabito, G.* & Light, S.N. (2020). Empathy for joy recruits a
broader prefrontal network than empathy for sadness and is predicted by executive
functioning. Neuropsychology, 35, 90-102.
Light, S.N. (2022). The Combined Use of Neuropsychiatric Assessment Tools to Make a
Differential Dementia Diagnosis in the Presence of “Long-Haul" COVID-19. Case Reports in
Neurology, 14(1), 130-148.
Light, S.N., Roblow, S., Gungor, D., Glassy, N. & Disbrow, E.A. (2024). The Building Blocks
of Divergent Thinking are Impaired in Parkinson's Disease (in press).
Home
Contact
