Matthew Belmonte trained in computer science, neuroscience, and fiction writing -- three complementary aspects of symbolic systems. His research has applied EEG and fMRI to explore brain physiology in people with autism spectrum conditions and in their family members, helping to provide the basis of a current theory of abnormal connectivity within and between autistic neural and cognitive networks. He also has interests in the development of computational methods for statistical analysis of fMRI and EEG time series, and in the relation of cognitive science to literary representation. Before joining the Department of Human Development at Cornell he worked with Simon Baron-Cohen at Cambridge, Deborah Yurgelun-Todd at McLean Hospital, and Eric Courchesne at the University of California San Diego.