Neurobehavioral Research Laboratory and Clinic (NRLC)

Charles W. Mathias, Ph.D.

Dr. Mathias

Associate Professor

Director of Community Outreach

Division of Neurobehavioral Research

Department of Psychiatry
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Biographical Sketch

Drs Mathias and Dougherty data1 Dr. Mathias is Associate Professor (tenured) in the Division of Neurobehavioral Research within the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA). He completed his graduate training in Applied Biopsychology at the University of New Orleans and a National Institute of Mental Health sponsored postdoctoral research fellowship at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dr. Mathias held his first faculty appointment at Wake Forest University Health Sciences in Winston-Salem, NC prior to being recruited to UTHSCSA in 2007. Dr. Mathias is the Web Publisher for the Division of Neurobehavioral Research and for the International Society for Research on Impulsivity.

Dr. Mathias's research interests are focused on understanding the physiological mechanisms that underlie externalizing behaviors exhibited among individuals with psychiatric symptoms and disorders. As a result, his research approach involves adapting laboratory behavioral procedures used for the assessment of impulsivity to include psychophysiological measurements. This started at the University of New Orleans, with studies that employed psychophysiological tools (P300, augmenting/reducing, and autonomic reactivity) with traditional neuropsychological tools (e.g. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test). He has had experience using these techniques in community, forensic, and clinical populations. Of particular interest has been the study of populations with impulse control difficulties (e.g., patients with traumatic brain injury, antisocial personality disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder). This work has included evaluating the effects of medications on psychophysiological processes important to understanding impulsive and aggressive behaviors. In the last several years, Dr. Mathias has expanded this research to include adolescents, and has begun to use other psychophysiological (e.g., prepulse inhibition and valence modulation) and behavioral (e.g., GoStop Impulsivity Paradigm) procedures. Within the NRLC, Dr. Mathias's research emphasis is conducting projects that concentrate on developmental psychopathology among adolescents and emerging adults.