Dr. Mathalon is co-director and principal investigator of the Brain Imaging and EEG Laboratory at University of California, San Francisco, where he is on faculty.
Dr. Mathalon received his BA from UC Berkeley and his PhD in Clinical Psychology from Indiana University. While at Indiana University, Dr. Mathalon was awarded the university’s Edwards Fellowship in recognition of his potential to contribute to the good of society through his work. Dr. Mathalon returned to California to attend Stanford University School of Medicine. While in medical school, Dr. Mathalon began neuroimaging research in the Stanford University laboratory of Dr. Adolf Pfefferbaum and there developed statistical models to control for the effects of normal aging (Pfefferbaum et al, 1994) and head size (Mathalon et al, 1993) on brain measurements. Dr. Mathalon stayed at Stanford as a resident in Psychiatry. After completing his residency, Dr. Mathalon became a research scientist at SRI International in Menlo Park, CA.
In 2000, Dr. Mathalon joined the faculty of Yale University School of Medicine and there established his Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience laboratory. While at Yale, Dr. Mathalon taught extensively, supervising psychiatry residents, mentoring research, and lecturing and teaching courses in the medical school. He continued his clinical work as an attending psychiatrist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. In 2003, Dr. Mathalon was given the Early Career Contribution Award from EEG and Clinical Neuroscience. He was given the Senior Scientist Award in both 2003 and 2006 from the Biennial Winter Workshop on Schizophrenia, and in 2005 the Kempf Award for Schizophrenia Research from the American Psychiatric Association.
In 2007 Dr. Mathalon moved his collaboration with Dr. Ford to San Francisco, establishing the Brain Imaging and EEG Laboratory at UCSF, where he is on faculty. Dr. Mathalon continues his clinical work as an attending psychiatrist at the San Francisco VAMC.
Dr. Mathalon’s research examines the brain abnormalities that underlie the symptoms and course of psychopathology, particularly schizophrenia. He uses MRI and ERP to track the biological course of schizophrenia, addressing whether its pathophysiology is progressive over the illness course. He also uses ERP and functional MRI (fMRI) to study temporal and anatomical organization of functional brain activity underlying sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processes and their dysfunction in psychiatric disorders.