New Approaches to Understanding the Human Brain: Three Theoretical Models and a Test Battery

As Research Director of the Central Institute for the Deaf (CID), Ira Hirsh emphasized the importance of combining information from biology with rigorous studies of behavior, such as psychophysics, to understand better how the brain and body accomplish the goals of everyday life. This article explores several research programs and conclusions that grew out of this author's dissertation at CID as directed by Ira, all relating to the neurobiological bases of individual differences in general and functional asymmetries in particular. This work has led to (1) the four-domain EPIC Model of Functional Asymmetries; (2) the Handshaking Model of Brain Function, describing dynamic relations along all three body/brain axes; (3) the Trimodal Model of Brain Organization, a new explanation for individual differences based on psychoimmunoneuroendocrinology, which incorporates concepts from both the EPIC and Handshaking Models; and (4) the Auditory Cross-Section (AXS) Test Battery for assessing the neurobiology of human sensory-motor function.

Ira J. Hirsh - brain imaging - evoked potentials - human brain models - individual differences - psychoimmunoneuroendocrinology

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