Gerry Leisman is an Israeli-British neuroscientist educated in Europe and the United States at Manchester University and the City University of New York. He received a PhD in Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering from Union University, in 1979. He currently is associated with the University of Haifa in Israel and is the Director of the F. R. Carrick Institute for Clinical Ergonomics, Rehabilitation, and Applied Neuroscience (C.E.R.A.N.) and Director of its doctoral program in Rehabilitation Neuropsychology.
He has been active since the early 1970s in the promotion of consciousness as a scientifically tractable problem, and has been particularly influential in arguing that consciousness can now be approached using the modern tools of neurobiology and understood by mechanisms of theoretical physics. His primary collaborator in this endeavour is Paul Koch. He has also been influential in examining mechanisms of self organizing systems in the brain and nervous system for cognitive function exemplified by his work in memory, kinesiology, optimization, consciousness & death, and autism. He was elected a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science in 1990.
Selected Publications
Melillo, R. and Leisman, G. Neurobehavioral Disorders of Childhood: An evolutionary perspective (2004)
Leisman, G. and Melillo, R. Cortical asymmetry and learning efficiency: A direction for the rehabilitation process. In: Learning disabilities: New research Nova Publishing (2006)
Leisman, G. and Melillo, R. Functional brain organization in developmental dyslexia. In: Focus on dyslexia research. (2004)
Koch, P. and Leisman, G. Typology of nonlinear activity waves in a layered neural continuum. International Journal of Neuroscience, 2006, 116: 381-405.
Leisman, G. and Koch, P. Synaptic strengthening and continuum activity-wave growth in temporal sequencing during cognitive tasks. International Journal of Neuroscience, 2003, 113, 179-202.
Koch, P. and Leisman, G. Effect of local synaptic strengthening on global activity-wave growth in the hippocampus. Journal of Neuroscience, 2001, 108:1-2, 127-146.
Leisman, G. and Koch, P. Continuum model of mnemonic and amnesic phenomena. Journal of The International Neuropsychological Society, 2000, 6, 589-603.
Koch, P. and Leisman, G . Wave theory of large-scale organization of cortical activity. International Journal of Neuroscience, 1996, 86, 179-196.
External Links
Rehabilitation Neuropsychology - PhD Programme
Leeds Metropolitan University Inaugural Lecture Video Link
Leeds Metropolitan University Inaugural Lecture