Goal of the Institute

The Touro College Institute for Neurobehavioral Studies was created to serve as a mechanism
by which excellence is achieved in programs offered by Touro College in those fields that
deal with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment (including case management), of individuals who are known to, or are suspected of, suffering with disease, injury, or dysfunction of the brain. Special emphasis is placed on the development of programs and services that address the behavioral, cognitive, and emotional aspects of developmental and acquired disorders of the brain.

Activities of the Institute

The Institute:

• provides a forum for interdisciplinary collaboration among medical, rehabilitational, psychological and educational disciplines in addressing needs for professional training.
• interfaces with the Touro College of Medicine and with the Touro College of Pharmacy.
• provides all disciplines with opportunities to become aware of both foundational conceptions and significant recent advances being made in allied disciplines.
• provides cross-disciplinary training and research opportunities.
• facilitates the development of formal course offerings and degree programs within the curricula of Touro College.
• presents Grand Rounds in Neurobehavioral Psychology case conferences with participation by faculty and students from within relevant Touro College departments, and features Touro College faculty and invited guest-colloquium presenters.
• provides community-outreach offerings in the form of consultative activities upon request from community agencies and organizations.
• presents conferences and workshops that are made available to both health-care consumer and professional communities.

Composition of the Institute

The Institute is a division of the Graduate School of Psychology:

• Louis H. Primavera, Ph.D., Dean, Graduate School of Psychology; Touro College; and Dean, Touro College of Health Sciences
• Arthur Sullivan, Ph.D., Associate Dean, Graduate School of Psychology, Touro College
• Andrew W. Siegal, Ph.D., Institute Director
• Richard Waxman, Ph.D., Associate Director of the Institute

Didactic Activities

Institute staff is available to provide consultation and assistance with the design and creation of modules on selected aspects of specific neurobehavioral syndromes or neurological
disease entities, assessment methods, and intervention needs that could be incorporated, upon request, into the curricula of the various rehabilitational, medical, psychological, educational, and social work schools/ departments at Touro College.
Certificate programs in specific classes of etiologic disorders of the brain, e.g., cerebrovascular disease, traumatic brain injury, dementia, infectious diseases, can be developed and coordinated by Institute staff working in conjunction with adjunct faculty in response to workforce development and public health needs as they arise.
The Institute provides a mechanism by which continuing education credits are awarded to licensed professionals participating in post-graduate training seminars and
workshops.

Clinical Teaching

Grand Rounds in Neurobehavioral Psychology is offered to Touro College faculty and students in the physician assistant programs, medical students, faculty and students in psychological and educational fields, including social work. Faculty and students from all rehabilitation and medical fields are invited to attend rounds, as are faculty and students from within the Touro College Graduate School of Psychology.
For patients whose cases are presented at Rounds, their attending and consulting physicians and other community-based professionals involved with the case are invited to participate in Rounds presentations.
Neurobehavioral histories and clinical interviews, and a neuropsychological assessment can be provided on selected cases by the Institute director or associate director upon request, and if the Institute director agrees to provide such services. Those Touro College-based consultative examinations can be coordinated with studies conducted by the patient’s community-based treatment team.

Research Functions

The Institute serves as a mechanism for interdisciplinary communication of opportunities for faculty and student research participation and ollaboration. Faculty from departments within the medical school, Physician Assistant programs, all rehabilitation fields, special education, and all programs of the Graduate School of Psychology will be invited and encouraged to provide descriptions of the clinical populations with whom they work and current research in progress that could provide collaborative research opportunities for faculty and students.
Current research in progress by the Institute Director includes an empirical study of clinical judgment in the ability to recognize epileptic etiology when a patient presents with a secondary, paranoid psychosis. A subsequent study examines the effects of syndromal recognition upon diagnostic hypothesis testing, treatment and atient managment.
Also, in progress is the Institute director’s ongoing development and application of formats for teaching clinicians and clinical trainees specific skills in history-taking and clinical interviewing for symptomatology with patients suffering from a wide variety of neurobehavioral disorders.
The Institute places an emphasis on research that is of immediate relevance and has applicability to health-care delivery.

Professional Advisory Board
The Professional Advisory Board is multidisciplinary in composition and includes the disciplines of neurology, psychiatry, physical medicine, and rehabilitation as well as clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

• Erin D. Bigler, Ph.D., (clinical neuropsychology; neurophysiology, neuroimaging) Professor, Departments of Psychology and Neuroscience, Brigham Young University; Faculty, Utah Brain Institute
• John DeLuca, Ph.D., (clinical and rehabilitation neuropsychology; cognitive neuroscience; functional neuroimaging) Vice President for Research Kessler Foundation; Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Professor, Departments of Neurology and Neurosciences, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School
• Jack Katz, Ph.D., Director, Auditory Processing Service; Research Professor, University of Kansas Medical Center; Professor Emeritus, University of Buffalo, and Senior Editor, Handbook of Clinical Audiology
• William B. McHugh, M.D., Ph.D., (clinical neurology, neuropharmacology, clinical neurophysiology) Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Nevada School of Medicine
• John M. Myers, M.D., (adult and child-adolescent psychiatry; consultation liaison psychiatry and neuropsychiatry) Independent Practice, Capital District, NY & Instructor in Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical College
• Rodney A. Swenson, Ph.D., (clinical neuropsychology and biomechanics) Clinical Professor, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of North Dakota Medical School, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota, Adjunct Professor, NDSU - Biomedical Engineering Research Group
• Nils R. Varney, Ph.D., (clinical and experimental neuropsychology; medical neuropsychology, aphasiology, neuropsychological test development, neuroimaging; Viet Nam veterans’ public health issues) Independent Practice, Iowa City; formerly Chief Psychologist and Director of Training, Iowa City Veterans Administration Hospital
• Nathan D. Zasler, M.D., (physical medicine and rehabilitation; brain injury medicine) Clinical Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; Medical Director, Concussion Care Centre of Virginia, Ltd.

All Professional Advisory Board members hold appointments at the Clinical Professor level in the Graduate School of Psychology, Touro College.

Contact Us

Andrew W. Siegal, Ph.D.
Director, Institute for Neurobehavioral Studies
TOURO COLLEGE
1700 Union Boulevard, Bay Shore, NY 11706
631.665.1600, ext. 6289 631.665.6342 (fax)
andrew.siegal@touro.edu