Sarah Garcia

Associate Professor of Psychology

Sarah Garcia, PhD, is a clinical neuropsychologist who studies non-pharmacological interventions for cognitive decline in a variety of medical populations. Her past work has examined cognitive deficits in a wide variety of populations (e.g. heart failure, bariatric surgery candidates, and dementia) as well as the use of exercise, sleep and electrical stimulation as potential preventative and treatment approaches.

  • PhD, clinical psychology, Kent State University, 2015
  • MA, Clinical Psychology, Kent State University, 2013
  • BA, Psychology, the College of Wooster, 2009

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Sarah Garcia

Biography

Sarah Garcia, PhD, is a clinical neuropsychologist who studies non-pharmacological interventions for cognitive decline in a variety of medical populations. Her past work has examined cognitive deficits in a wide variety of populations (e.g. heart failure, bariatric surgery candidates, and dementia) as well as the use of exercise, sleep and electrical stimulation as potential preventative and treatment approaches.

Garcia has received the Lillian Freedman Award and an award from the Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Center for her research as an Early Investigator. In addition to her graduate work, Garcia has also completed clinical work through her internship at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and through her post-doctoral fellowship in Neuropsychology at the University of Michigan.

More About Sarah Garcia

Areas of Expertise

  • Health psychology

Course Sampling

  • Health Psychology
  • Abnormal Psychology
  • Clinical and Counseling Psychology

  • Garcia, S., *Foster, E., *Johnson, P.J., *Thomas, B., Askew, R. (2024). Executive Function as a Predictor of Pain Perception in Healthy Young Adults. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, accepted for publication.
  • Garcia, S., Askew, R. L., Kavcic, V., Shair, S., Bhaumik, A. K., Rose, E., Campbell, S., May, N., Hampstead, B. M., Dodge, H. H., Heidebrink, J. L., Paulson, H. L., and Giordani, B. (2023). MCI subtype performance in comparison to healthy older controls on the NIH Toolbox and Cogstate. Alzheimer’s Disease and Associated Dementias, accepted for publication.
  • Repetti, C., Eskenazi, M. E., & Garcia, S. (2022). You feel me? A randomized trial of tDCS on pain empathy. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 179, 1-5.
  • Garcia, S., Ferguson, C. J., & Wang, C. K. J. (2022). Prosocial video game content, empathy and cognitive ability in a large sample of youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 51(1), 62-73.
  • Garcia, S., *Nalven, M., *Ault, A., & Eskenazi, M. E. (2020). TDCS as a treatment for anxiety and related cognitive deficits. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 158, 172-177.
  • Garcia, S., & Hampstead, B. M. (2020). HD-tDCS as a Neurorehabilitation Technique for a Case of Post-Anoxic Leukoencephalopathy. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, Epub, 1-21.
  • Hampstead, B. M., Garcia, S., Chen, A., Rahman-Filipiak, A., Reckow, J., & Peltier, S. (2017). The current state of and future directions for tDCS in dementia. Brain Stimulation, 10(2), 507.
  • Garcia, S., & Gunstad, J. (2015). Sleep as a modifiable risk factor in age-associated cognitive decline. Sleep and Biological Rhythms, 14(1), 3-11.
  • Garcia, S., Alosco, M.L., Spitznagel, M.B., Cohen, R., Raz, N., Sweet, L., Colbert, L., Josephson, R., Hughes, J., Rosneck, J., & Gunstad, J. (2013). Cardiovascular fitness associated with cognitive performance in Heart Failure patients enrolled in cardiac rehabilitation. BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, 13, 29.
  • Garcia, S., Fedor, A., Spitznagel, M.B., Strain, G., Devlin, MJ, Cohen, R., Paul, R., Crosby, R., Mitchell, J., & Gunstad, J. (2012). Patient reports of cognitive problems are not associated with neuropsychological performance in bariatric surgery candidates. Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, 9(5), 797-801.