ProfessorSharon Naismith

Prof Naismith's research examines mediators of cognitive decline in older adults 'at risk' of dementia.

Her Healthy Brain Ageing (HBA) Cognitive Training program is a groundbreaking multidisciplinary intervention combining psychoeducation with computerized cognitive training, specifically designed for older adults at high risk of dementia. The program has had a transformative health impact, demonstrating significant cognitive benefits across multiple high-risk groups, including depression, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Parkinson’s disease. It has been successfully embedded in leading memory clinics at Sydney’s St Vincent’s and Royal Prince Alfred Hospitals, is in progress in a further six clinics, and is scheduled for adoption in a UK memory clinic in 2025. In partnership with Dementia Australia, it was nationally scaled into the MCI Thinking Ahead program, targeting ~1 million Australians.  Extending her work to other fields, Prof Naismith is now leading a large randomised controlled trial to examine the impact of music interventions (piano, choir) on cognition and markers of neurodegenerative disease.

For her work on sleep, she co-founded (2020-2022) and Chaired (2022-2024) the Alzheimer’s Association ISTAART Professional Interest Area on Sleep and Circadian rhythms (>450 global members) and led their international Delphi panel for sleep measures (Andre et al, 2025). She now leads an NHMRC Synergy Grant (https://siesta.sydney.edu.au/) Synergising Integrating and Enhancing Sleep Research to Transform Brain Ageing (SIESTA). This will a) examine if and how sleep contributes to dementia b) conduct clinical trials for sleep in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s c) test digital sleep technologies for community implementation.  Prof Naismith's internationally recognised sleep program explores sleep’s role in cognitive decline, especially in MCI, a key window for prevention. It identified sleep disruption (incl. OSA-related hypoxia) as common, under detected, and linked to brain atrophy and memory loss. Findings have received global media coverage (44 outlets incl. BBC, CNN) and shaped editorials and screening/treatment calls in memory clinics.  Her team synthesised objective sleep changes in MCI, and established international consensus on measurement/trial design and future directions for the field. 

Innovations include development and validation of a novel sleep-dependent memory task, now used nationally/internationally and adapted as an app.

Prof Naismith also leads the Memory Clinics Initiative of the Australian Dementia Network (ADNeT, see australiandementianetwork.org.au). She oversaw the first Memory Clinic Guidelines, established the ADNeT clinic Locator Map and co-led the first study implementing new Alzheimer's biomarkers into memory clinics. She convened a working party which is conducting ongoing work to translate cogntiive interventions into memory clinics nationwide. She advocates for funding, policy change and health service transformation to create equitable access to memory clinics and improve diagnostic and post-diagnostic support. She pioneered the development of a hybrid virtual memory clinic model and has MRFF funding to  test the quality of a model for regional and rural Australians.

Her research aligns with the Faculty of Science Research Strengths - Understanding Disease & Disorder in Humans, Health and Wellbeing Across the Lifespan, Preventing and Treating Disease & Disorder.