Cyndi Schumann, Ph.D.
Co-Investigator, Project 3: Neurodevelopment in an NHP MIA Model
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
UC Davis MIND Institute
Throughout her 20 years' experience in neuroscience and autism research, Dr. Cyndi Schumann has taken a multidisciplinary approach to investigating potential pathological development in the human brain and specifically, in children with autism. She is a co-investigator on Project 3. Her research primarily addresses the important role that altered brain maturational trajectories may play in the development of autistic neuropathology, using tools such as magnetic resonance imaging of young children with autism and postmortem cellular brain tissue studies. One of her primary areas of research is to define cellular maturation of the human amygdala and temporal cortex from childhood to adulthood in typical development and contrast this with autism. Dr. Schumann is a neuroanatomist by training and has developed and published studies using histological and stereological methods to quantify cellular neuropathology, cell/neuron numbers and sizes, immunohistochemistry and dendritic arborization in human and animal models. She has also published multiple studies utilizing magnetic resonance imaging, including the first longitudinal study of brain development in young children with autism.