| Dr. Joseph: A Brief Biographical Sketch Evolutionary neurobiologist and developmental neuroscientist, Dr. Rhawn Joseph pioneered research in neuroplasticity back in the 1970s when he demonstrated the profound effects of the environment on learning, memory, perception, and the developing brain, and was the first to demonstrate that atrophied neurons in the primate brain could be functionally regenerated and the first to demonstrate recovery of neural and perceptual functioning in primates. (See Publications)
In the 1970s Dr. Joseph also provided evidence that the brain was sexually differentiated, that the same exact sex differences were present in other species, that he could reverse these sex differences and the sexual differentiation of the brain, and that these sex differences were maintained regardless of rearing conditions. In the 1980s, Dr. Joseph published a number of studies on "split-brain" functioning in adults and children, demonstrating, experimentally, the presence of two independent mental realms, localized side by side in the right and left hemisphere. In 1982 he presented a comprehensive new theory on the neurological organization and expression of language, and introduced the concept of "limbic language," and throughout the 1980s provided experimental support for his convergence-gap filling language axis theory of speech, and which has now been repeatedy experimentally verified and which numerous scientists now champion as their own.
Dr. Joseph has also pioneered research on the evolution of the brain and mind, consciousness, language, thought, religious and spiritual experience, sexuality (e.g. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2000, 29, 35-66. Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science, 2001, 36, 105-136; Behavioral & Brain Science, 2000, 23, 439-441), and the limbic system foundations of emotion. Dr. Joseph is the author of one of the best selling neuroscience text books of all time, his work has been discussed in Time magazine (1997) and his theory on the origin of life was telecast almost verbatim in a 15 minute segment televised by ABC News and ABC Nightline in 1997.
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