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= Sara Ann Norton = Sara Ann Norton is an American neuropsychologist. She is a teaching and research assistant at Rutgers University.

Sara Ann Norton was born in Somerset, New Jersey, United States. She grew up with her father, Richard Norton, and brother, Daniel Thomas Norton. She moved to Quaker Hill, Connecticut, consecutively after being born but eventually returned to New Jersey for middle school and high school education. From a young age, Norton had been interested in how the mind works and also had an underlying interest in medicine. Since Norton was unsure of what specialization she wanted to pursue, she decided to continue an education in psychology. Norton applied to many schools in the U.S. and was accepted into American University. She continued her education at American University from 2009 to 2013, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.

In 2013, Norton was hired as a teaching assistant and research assistant at Rutgers University. At Rutgers, she teaches psychology. The Rutgers courses she is affiliated with include, Introduction to Neuropsychological Assessment, Physiological Psychology, Nervous Systems and Behavior, Research Design and Analysis, and Behavioral Pharmacology. Currently, she is still working as a professor. Parallel to her job Norton received her doctorate from Rutgers in 2013 to 2018. She was acknowledged for her work on evaluating neurological drugs and early life influences of immune stressors on development. She has published several scientific articles on neuroscience in PubMed. One of her publishings, Long-lasting Behavioral and Neuroanatomical Effects of Postnatal Valproic Acid Treatment, found that early life exposure to Valproic Acid Treatment produced several developmental disorders, including ASD, ADHD, and conduct disorder which effect functions of the frontal lobe in patients. She conducted a study with her lab mates, Janace Gifford, Marialaina Nissenbaum, and Drs. Audrey Chang and Ruthy Glass, where she administered to mice Valproic acid and tested the psychological changes it inflicted. For her study, she found that in the long-term, the mice began to display social, cognitive, and motor deficits that mimicked the psychology of humans with autism spectrum disorder. Her work was significant because it pointed out the potential dangers of Valproic acid, which was, at the time, a popular drug used to treat individuals with bipolar disorder. The drug was thought to be a mood stabilizer, but Norton's research showed the potential harm it could impose.

Another significant article that Norton published was Inflammation and Post-stroke Depression. Her research found that Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients were at a higher risk for inflammation, which impacts the likelihood of post-stroke depression. Inflammation had been linked to stroke patients, but the idea of post stroke depression had not been explored. Post stroke depression was thought to be caused primarily by other factors, like brain-injury, changing circumstances, and loss of mobility. Norton conducted a study with the assistance of Rutgers University and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, to interview and work with real AIS patients. She used the Hamilton Depression Scale, Beck Depression, as well as other diagnostic interviews to evaluate patients mood conditions. She then used RBANS to measure their cognitive functioning. Norton's research found that AIS patients had poor cognitive recovery which resulted in higher inflammation levels in their bodies. This impact reduced the recovery time of patients and increased their stroke recurrence.

Outside of her publications, Norton served as a member of the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students. Her work was endorsed by Michael Mullarkey, who is the Director of Data Science at the Lab for Scalable Mental Health.

While in undergraduate school, Sara Ann Norton met her husband, Ryan Wilson, who she married a few years later.


 * Membership Award, American Psychological Association of Graduate Students, n.d.
 * Sara Ann Norton, Inflammation and Post-Stroke Depression, 2017.


 * Sara Ann Norton, Valproic acid induces nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 expression in fetal and neonatal brains but not in adult brain: evidence of the gamma-aminobutyric acid-shift hypothesis, 2020.
 * Sara Ann Norton, Maternal Immune Activation with Staphylococcal Enterotoxin A Produces Unique Behavioral Changes in C57BL/6 Mouse Offspring, 2018.
 * Sara Ann Norton, Early Life Influences of Pharmacological and Immune Stressors on Development, 2019.
 * Sara Ann Norton, Long-lasting Behavioral and Neuroanatomical Effects of Postnatal Valproic Acid Treatment, 2020.