Jesús O. Barreto Abrams, PhD

Jesús O. Barreto Abrams, PhD, is a clinical neuropsychologist at the Pacific Brain Health Center, Pacific Neuroscience Institute. He evaluates patients in American Sign Language (ASL), Spanish, or English. He mainly works with adult and older adults with cognitive concerns consulting with physician and other allied health professionals in the diagnosis and treatment of neurocognitive disorders due to neurological conditions (e.g., dementias, strokes, traumatic brain injuries) and other medical illnesses (e.g., COVID-19, cancer). Dr. Barreto Abrams also occasionally holds a pediatric neuropsychological clinic specialized in working with Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing children with neuropsychological concerns. Further, he serves as a neuropsychologist liaison to the cochlear implant (CI) team at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute assisting with candidacy evaluations for children and adults who may have neuropsychological concerns.

Career Highlights

Dr. Barreto Abrams is a trilingual lifespan fellowship-trained clinical neuropsychologist. He completed his Bachelor of Science with a major in psychology from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. In 2020, he graduated from Gallaudet University with his doctoral degree (PhD) in clinical psychology and was awarded the university’s Graduate Student Outstanding Achievement Award in recognition of his scholarly, clinical, and pedagogical endeavors as a student. Throughout his doctoral studies, Dr. Barreto Abrams specialized in the provision of psychological and neuropsychological services to the Deaf community in American Sign Language and/or English and completed training across the lifespan in clinical neuropsychology, psychotherapy, and forensic evaluations.

Prior to joining Pacific Neuroscience Institute, Dr. Barreto Abrams completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human behavior and UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. While at UCLA, he worked across the lifespan with patients who had cognitive concerns due to neurological/neurodevelopmental conditions, medical illnesses, and psychiatric diagnoses. He specialized in conducting neuropsychological evaluations for monolingual and bilingual Spanish-speaking individuals across the lifespan.

Dr. Barreto Abrams remains involved with clinical sciences. He continues to present and publish research related to neurocognitive concerns, cultural skills with assessing minoritized communities, and multilingual assessments. Dr. Barreto Abrams has recently published on how to conduct evaluations with Spanish-speaking patients, how to use interpreters in neuropsychological evaluations, and on early intervention for Deaf children in Puerto Rico. He is involved in a project regarding Deaf adults and verbal memory as well as adaptations in neuropsychological evaluations with deaf and hard of hearing patients.

Dr. Barreto Abrams has received multiple adjunct professor appointments teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level psychology, child development and intervention, and interpreting. Prior to becoming a clinical neuropsychologist, Dr. Barreto Abrams worked as a trilingual interpreter and holds a National Interpreter Certificate (NIC) from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). He is also involved in leadership positions serving in the advisory board of New2Neuropsychology (N2N) and serving in multiple committees for various national organizations (e.g., APA’s Div. 22 Special Interest Group on Deafness, QNS).

Medical Specialties

Adult and geriatric clinical neuropsychology
Deaf and hard-of-hearing neuropsychological evaluations across the lifespan
Monolingual and bilingual Spanish-speaking neuropsychological evaluations for adults and older adults