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David G. Amaral, Ph.D., is a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, and since 1998 has been the research director at the M.I.N.D. Institute, an affiliate of UC Davis, engaged in interdisciplinary research into the causes and treatment of autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders.

In 1972, Amaral earned his B.A. in psychology from Northwestern University, and in 1977 his Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Psychology at the University of Rochester. From 1977-1980, Amaral was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow, at the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, Missouri.

The M.I.N.D. Institute is a unique, pioneering research facility founded by UC Davis in collaboration with the parents of autistic children frustrated by the lack of answers concerning the rapidly growing epidemic of developmental disorders. The institute touts itself as the premier autism fundraising and research center in the world, after building a state-of-the-art facility in Sacramento, California, spurred by $34 million granted by the California State legislature primarily for research.

Amaral has directed over a million dollars worth of research with grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH}, which has included primate research investigations on the function of the amygdala, a brain region associated with emotion processing. Much of his research at the M.I.N.D. Institute revolves around the function of the amygdala and the hippocampal complex, and their respective roles in the pathology of autism.

Amaral is currently investigating "Postmortem Neuroanatomical Evaluation of the Amygdaloid Complex in Autism", in collaboration with the National Alliance for Autism Research. His earlier studies detected alterations in the amygdala, which itself underlies the social and emotional abnormalities in autism. Amaral is attempting to evaluate his hypothesis by analyzing the atypical neural organization in individuals with autism.

Amaral's awards include the McKnight Foundation Scholars Award, in 1981, the Sloan Foundation Fellow, 1983, and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Merit Award, 1989.

• List of autism-related topics

• UCDavis.edu - David Amaral homepage, University of California, Davis
  • UCDavis.edu - M.I.N.D. Institute website
  • UCDavis.edu (pdf) - The M.I.N.D. Institute Newsletter, vol 1, no 2 (Winter, 2001)
  • UCDavis.edu - 'UC Davis Autism Research Testifies Before Congress', UC Davis
• AutisticSociety.org - 'Study: Brain is atypical in autistic boys', Dorsey Griffith, The Sacramento Bee (July 15, 2004)
• SARnet.org - 'Healing Autism: No Finer A Cause on the Planet', Schafer Autism Report