Sarah Mattson, professor of psychology and associate director of San Diego State’s Center for Behavioral Teratology, looks at children through a different lens. Instantly, she recognizes the telltale signs -- small eyes, thin upper lip and lack of ridges between the nose and upper lip -- that signal Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS).

For 20 years, the Surgeon General’s warning on beer, wine and distilled liquor has cautioned Americans that drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause birth defects. Nevertheless, one to two of every 1,000 infants born in the U.S. exhibit signs of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), a preventable cause of mental retardation.

Professor Mattson’s work continues the critical research of the Center for Behavioral Teratology on the neuropsychological and behavioral symptoms seen in FAS children and has advanced understanding of the learning problems these youngsters face from an early age. Professor Mattson has demonstrated that children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure show the same pattern of neuropsychological deficits even when the physical features associated with FAS are absent.

Professor Mattson was part of a group that produced the first MRI study showing brain changes in FAS children. She has collaborated on research to measure differences in attention and brain processing deficits between FAS children and children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Both groups display deficiencies in executive function, a set of brain processes that guides thought and behavior. But the degree and pattern of deficits differ in FAS and ADHD children, and those differences are crucial to correct diagnosis and early intervention, which can benefit FAS children.

More than $5 million in funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism supports Professor Mattson’s current research.

She is principal investigator on a grant to test the neuropsychological effects of FAS in collaboration with researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles; Emory University; the University of New Mexico; and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. This project, in turn, is part of a multisite neurobehavioral assessment of FAS spectrum disorders with research sites in Russia, Ukraine, Finland and Rome.

Professor Mattson sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs and is a reviewer for several other professional journals. She is an author on more than 50 peer reviewed papers and 12 book chapters. During the last three years alone, she has presented more than 40 papers.

A licensed clinical psychologist and an associate adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, Professor Mattson also teaches in the SDSU/UCSD joint doctoral program in clinical psychology. Since 2001, she has directed student research projects for more than 60 graduate and undergraduate students at SDSU.