Warren Brown is Professor of Psychology at the Graduate School of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he is Director of the Lee Travis Research Institute. He is also a member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute. Prof. Brown received his doctorate in Experimental Physiological Psychology from the University of Southern California (1971). Prior to Fuller, he spent eleven years as a research scientist at the UCLA Brain Research Institute. He writes and lectures extensively, has edited 2 multi-author books and published a number of papers on the relationship between neuroscience and religion.
Prof. Brown is actively involved in experimental neuropsychological research related to functions of the corpus callosum of the brain and its relationship to higher cognitive processes in humans. In particular, he has been studying callosal agenesis and its implications. He has also written and lectured widely on the implications of neuroscience for a Christian view of human nature. He has been particularly interested in resolving the theological issues created if one abandons body-soul dualism.
Recent Publications in Science and Religion
- Brown, W.S. (+ 2 chapters), Murphy, N. and Malony, H.N., Eds. (1998) Whatever Happened of the Soul? Scientific and Theological Portraits of Human Nature, Fortress Press, 1998.
- Brown, W.S. (1999) ‘A Neurocognitive Perspective on Free Will’, Bulletin of the Center for Theology and Natural Science, 19.1, 22-29.
- Brown, W.S. and Jeeves, M.S. (1999) ‘Portraits of human nature: Reconciling neuroscience and Christian anthropology’, Science and Christian Belief, 11, 139-150.
- Brown, W.S., ed. (+ chapter), Understanding Wisdom: Sources, Science, and Society, Templeton Press (2000).
- Brown, W.S. (2002) ‘Nonreductive physicalism and soul: Finding resonance between theology and neuroscience’, American Behavioral Scientist 45: 1812-1821.
- Brown, W.S. (2003) ‘Evolution, Cognitive Neuroscience, and the Soul’, in Keith B. Miller, ed., Perspectives on an Evolving Creation, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), pp. 502-523.
- Brown, W.S. (2004) ‘Neurobiological embodiment of spirituality and soul’, in Malcolm A. Jeeves, ed., From Cells to Souls:Changing Portraits of Human Nature, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 58-76.
- Brown, W.S. (2005) ‘Seven Pillars of the House of Wisdom’, in R. Sternberg and J. Jordan. A Handbook of Wisdom: Psychological Perspectives, New York: Cambridge University Press, 353-368.
- Brown, W.S. (2007) ‘The Emergence of Efficacious Mental Function’, in Nancey Murphy and William Stoeger, Reductionism and Emergence: Implications for the Science/Theology Dialogue.
- Murphy, N. and Brown, W.S. (2007) Did My Neurons Make Me Do It? :Philosophical and Neurobiological Perspectives on Moral Responsibility and Free Will, Oxford, U.K., Oxford University Press.
Recent scientific publications
- Brown, WS, Jeeves, MA, Dietrich, R., and Burnison, DS. (1999) ‘Bilateral field advantage and evoked potential interhemispheric transmission in commissurotomy and callosal agenesis’, Neuropsychologia, 37, 1154-1180.
- Brown W.S. and Paul L.K., (2000) ‘Psychosocial deficits in agenesis of the corpus callosum with normal intelligence’, Cognitive Neuropsychiatry. 5, 135-157.
- Brown, W.S. and Banich, M.T. [Special Issue Guest Editors] (2000) ‘Development of the Corpus Callosum and Interhemispheric Interactions’, Developmental Neuropsychology, 18.
- Brown, W.S., Thrasher, E.D., and Paul, L.K. (2001) ‘Interhemispheric Stroop effect in partial and complete agenesis of the corpus callosum’, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. 7, 302-311.
- Brown, W.S. (2003) ‘Clinical neuropsychological assessment of callosal dysfunction: Multiple sclerosis and dyslexia’, in E. Zaidel, and M. Iacoboni (Eds.). The Parallel Brain: The Cognitive Neuroscience of the Corpus Callosum, Cambridge: MIT Press.
- Paul, L.K., Van Lancker, D., Schieffer, B. and Brown, W.S. (2003) ‘Communicative deficits in individuals with agenesis of the corpus callosum: Nonliteral language and affective prosody’, Brain and Language 85, 313-324.
- Marion, S.D., Killian, S.C., Naramor, T., and Brown, W.S. (2003) ‘Normal Development of Bimanual Coordination: Visuomotor and Interhemispheric Aspects’, Developmental Neuropsychology 23, 399-421.
- Paul, L.K., Schieffer, B., and Brown, W.S. (2004) ‘Social Processing Deficits in Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum: Narratives from the Thematic Apperception Test’, Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 19, 215-225.
- Brown, W.S., Paul, L.K., Symington, M., and Dietrich, R. (2005) ‘Comprehension of Humor in Primary Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum’, Neuropsychologia 43:906-916.
- Brown, W.S., Symington, M., VanLancker, D., Dietrich, R. and Paul, L.K. (2005) ‘Paralinguistic processing in children with Callosal Agenesis: Emergence of neurolinguistic deficits’, Brain and Language, 93, 135-139.
