Dr. Cyndi Schumann is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute. She earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California, Davis in 2005 for her work on the neuroanatomy and pathology of the amygdala in typically developing individuals and those with an autism spectrum disorder by carrying out studies utilizing both structural MRI and postmortem approaches at The M.I.N.D. Institute. Dr. Schumann and her collaborators at UC Davis demonstrated that the amygdala is undergoing an abnormal growth trajectory in children with autism that includes early overgrowth and a reduction of the number of neurons in adulthood. She completed her postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Diego from 2005-2007 where she carried out a longitudinal structural MRI study of cortical and amygdala development in young children from 2 to 5 years of age with autism; she continued this research as a faculty Research Scientist at UCSD in the Department of Neurosciences from 2007-2009. Among her major contributions, Dr. Schumann demonstrated that the development of the development of temporal cortex and amygdala are among the regions most severely altered in young children with an autism spectrum disorder beginning as early as 2 years of age and these regions continue an altered developmental time course through childhood. In 2009, Dr. Schumann returned to UC Davis to join the faculty at The M.I.N.D. Institute. The current focus of her laboratory is on typical neuroanatomical development of the temporal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus as well as neuropathology and altered developmental trajectories of these regions in patients with autism. Dr. Schumann is carrying out studies with postmortem human brain tissue utilizing techniques such as histology, stereology, Golgi impregnation, and immunohistochemistry. She is also leading program development for a brain and tissue repository at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute to support postmortem research on neurodevelopmental disorders worldwide.