ABSTRACT
Since its 19th-century beginnings in the work of neuropsychologists such as Paul Broca and John Hughlings Jackson, the study of human cerebral asymmetry has grown into a large and flourishing field of investigation that draws on a wide variety of modern experimental and biomedical procedures. Many of these procedures rely on the digital computer, which has proven invaluable in neuropsychological applications ranging from computer-controlled stimulus presentation to computerized imaging of brain structure and function. There is one application of computers, however, that has been conspicuous by its absence from studies of cerebral asymmetry: computer modeling. Despite its wide use and proven value in cognitive psychology (not to mention numerous other scientific fields), computer modeling has rarely been used in cognitive neuropsychological studies of laterality (for an exception, see Kosslyn, Sokolov, & Chen, 1989). This chapter is to illustrate the ways in which computer models can make contributions to investigations of hemispheric functional asymmetry.
