 |
Area of Specialty: Neuropsychology, Neurodegenerative Disease/Dementia, Acquired Brain Injury
Professional Appointments: Staff Neuropsychologist, the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute and JFK-Johnson Rehabilitation Institute at JFK Medical Center, Edison, New Jersey.
Graduate Education: Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology, JFK Medical Center, Edison, New Jersey, 2006-2008; PhD in Clinical Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, 2003-2006; Pre-Doctoral Internship in Clinical Psychology, New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill-Medical College of Cornell University, 2005-2006; MA in Clinical Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, 2001-2003; MA in Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 1995-1999.
Research Interests: Dr. Smart's clinical and research interests pertain to factors that predict independent functioning in elderly individuals with neurodegenerative and/or acquired brain injury. Much of the current research on the elderly focuses on memory; however, executive functions are often the strongest neuropsychometric predictor of functional status in the geriatric population. As such, Dr. Smart is currently working on developing a cognitive rehabilitation intervention targeting executive functioning that would enhance and prolong functional status in cognitively at-risk elderly. She hopes to recruit a mixed-etiology sample including both patients with neurodegenerative diseases as well as those with geriatric head injury. Dr. Smart also has a strong interest in neuroscientific applications of mindfulness meditation. In collaboration with Drs. Azulay and Cicerone of the Johnson Rehabilitation Institute, she is currently conducting a pilot clinical trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction for individuals with mild traumatic brain injury/post-concussive syndrome.
Honors, Awards, and Fellowships: Arthur J. Schmitt Dissertation Fellowship, Loyola University Chicago, 2004-2005; Nominee, Midwestern Association of Graduate Students' Distinguished Masters Thesis Award, 2004; Research Fellowship, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, 2001.
Representative Publications:
Smart, C. M., Nelson, N.W., Sweet, J.J., Bryant, F.B., Berry, D.T.R., Granacher, R.P., and Heilbronner, R.L. Use of MMPI-2 to identify cognitive effort: A hierarchically optimal classification tree analysis. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 14, 842-852, 2008
Vanhaudenhuyse, A., Giacino, J., Schnakers, C., Kalmar , K., Smart, C.M., Bruno, M.A., Gosseries, O., Brédart, S., and Laureys, S. Blink to visual threat does not herald consciousness in the vegetative state. Neurology, 71, 1374-1375, 2008
Smart, C.M., Giacino, J.T., Cullen, T., Rodriguez Moreno, D., Hirsch, D., Schiff, N. D., and Gizzi, M. A case of locked-in syndrome complicated by central deafness. Nature: Clinical Practice Neurology, 4, 448-453, 2008
Evans, S., Ferrando, S., Findler, M., Stowell, C., Smart, C.M., and Haglin, D. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22, 716-721, 2008
Giacino, J.T. and Smart, C.M. Recent advances in behavioral assessment of individuals with disorders of consciousness. Current Opinion in Neurology, 20 , 614-619, 2007
View more publications