Judith L. Lauter, PhD

Born and raised for the first nine years of her life in Austin TX, Judith Lauter received a BA cum laude in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan Honors College in Ann Arbor, where she also won two Hopwood Creative Writing Awards for manuscripts of poetry. Her coursework in English and literature was complemented by study in a range of natural sciences - botany, geology, biological anthropology. She subsequently earned three master's degrees from other universities (creative writing, University of Arizona; information science, University of Denver; and linguistics, Washington University in St. Louis), and completed a PhD in Communication Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis in 1979.

Her doctoral work drew on psychology, psychophysics, neurophysiology, developmental neurobiology, neuropharmacology, clinical neurology, and communication sciences and disorders, taught by scholars such as Hallowell Davis, James Miller, Stanley Finger, James Simmons, Tom Woolsey, Viktor Hamburger, Rita Levi-Montalcini, W. Maxwell Cowan, Nobuo Suga, and Ira Hirsh. Her dissertation, directed by Dr. Hirsh, focused on the psychoacoustics of dichotic listening, describing behavioral auditory asymmetries in terms of the interactions between individual differences and the physical dimensions of speech and nonspeech sounds. During this time, she also co-authored the Cumulative Index to the Journal of Comparative Neurology with journal editor W. Maxwell Cowan.

Her postdoctoral work at CID included teaching undergraduates, graduates, and medical residents. Judy also conducted multiple research projects exploring the physiological correlates of individual differences in brain asymmetries in collaboration with several groups at the Washington University School of Medicine. This work included studies of brainstem and cortical evoked potentials with faculty in Otolaryngology, and research on regional cerebral blood flow conducted in the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) laboratory directed by Marcus Raichle at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, where Judy also served as a consultant on PET experimental design from 1981-1985.

In 1985 she left St. Louis to take a research appointment at the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Arizona, where she supported her Coordinated Noninvasive Studies (CNS) Project via a 6-year series of grants from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. She also worked with high-school, undergraduate, and graduate students, and directed several doctoral dissertations. Her research gave her additional hands-on experience with a variety of noninvasive methods for studying the brain, ranging from evoked potentials and PET to quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and magnetoencephalography (MEG).

These studies addressed both normal brain function and the neurological basis of conditions such as hyperactivity, nicotine addiction, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer's Disease. This work was in collaboration with scientists at the University of Arizona Medical School, the University of Wisconsin, the U.S. Veterans Administration, the University of Tennessee Medical Center, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The results were presented and published nationally and internationally, and reviewed in several tutorial chapters on brain imaging and in a series of imaging workshops Judy presented around the U.S.

In 1991, Judy joined the faculty of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) where she founded and served as Director of the Center for Communication Neuroscience (CCNS). Her work in this period involved collaborations with departments on both the medical and main OU campus. She taught undergraduate and graduate courses, directed doctoral dissertations, and gave interdisciplinary lectures and Grand Round presentations to numerous departments, including Psychology, Pediatrics, Neurology, and Anatomy. She also wrote major grants with a number of groups including Pharmacology/Toxicology, Pediatrics, and Public Health; conducted research on reading and learning skills with individuals from other Oklahoma universities and the public schools; and hosted on-campus laboratory internships for high-school students, and research projects for middle-school students working on science fair projects. Judy also served as Public Liaison for the statewide Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience, for which she created NeuroNights, a monthly series of community-outreach programs offering the public the opportunity to interact with neuroscientists and clinicians on a wide variety of topics related to the brain.

In 2001 she joined the Department of Human Services at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches Texas, where she founded and served as Director for the Human Neuroscience Laboratory (HNL). The HNL research mission included: 1) developing new ways to use inexpensive, noninvasive technologies to study the brain; 2) documenting individual differences in terms of "neurological fingerprints" which link the central nervous system, peripheral physiology, and behavior; 3) studies on a wide variety of human characteristics, ranging from gender behavior and personality, to the propensity for different types of disorders such as autism, hyperactivity, dyslexia and Alzheimer's Disease; 4) diagnostic testing, recommendations, and referrals; 5) collaborative studies with individuals from many levels of preparation who have the opportunity to share in cutting-edge research; and 6) community outreach, communicating to students, teachers, and the general public the excitement of research on the human brain.

Following the publication of How Is Your Brain Like a Zebra? Judy presented overviews of the book’s concepts to a number of research and educational conferences, speaking to scientists, educators, clinicians, and parents. The "zebra-brain" model is also featured in a 3-hr educational video presentation by Judy, commissioned by The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and entitled Neuroimaging: How understanding individual differences can improve your clinical practice; copies of the video and accompanying manual are currently available by special purchase from the author.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Name Lauter, Judith L.
Title

Professor & Director (Retired), Human Neuroscience Laboratory Stephen F. Austin State

University, Nacogdoches TX 75962

Education
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI BA 1966 English
University of Arizona, Tucson AZ MA 1968 Creative Writing
University of Denver, Denver CO MA 1971 Information Science
Washington University in St. Louis MO MA 1974 Linguistics
Washington University in St. Louis MO PhD 1979 Communication Sciences
 

Research and Professional Experience 1974-1979 Research Assistant, Central Institute for the Deaf (Washington University in St. Louis). 1979-1985 Research Associate and Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences, Central Institute for the Deaf and Washington University in St. Louis; Laboratory Supervisor for Psychoacoustics Laboratory under grant from National Institute for Neurological and Communication Disorders and Stroke (NINCDS Program Project Grant NS-03856), 1980-1985; Principal Investigator (PI) for grant from Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR-84-0335) "Auditory perception of complex sounds," 1984-1985; member of NINCDS site-visit review committee to University of Minnesota Program Project Grant, 1982; Consultant to McDonnell Center for the Study of Higher Brain Functions (Washington University PETT VI Laboratory), 1981-1985.

1985-1991 Associate Research Scientist, Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Arizona; PI for AFOSR 85-0379 "Dichotic listening to complex sounds: Effects of stimulus characteristics and cross-cultural comparisons of individual differences," 1985-1988; PI for AFOSR 87-0003 "PET satellite data-analysis workstation," 1987; PI for AFOSR 88-0352 "The Coordinated Noninvasive Studies (CNS) Project," 1988-1991.

1991-2000 Associate Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; tenured 1994; Founder & Director, Center for Communication Neuroscience (CCNS); Public Liaison, Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience (designed and coordinated NeuroNights, a series of monthly public-information forums on neuroscience).

2001-2012 Professor, Department of Human Services, Stephen F. Austin State University; tenured 2004; Founder & Director, Human Neuroscience Laboratory (HNL); PI for series of SFA Faculty Research Grants and Research Development Program grant #RDP183706, "The Human Neuroscience Laboratory at SFA: Expanding the Circle;" retired fall 2012.

Professional Activities

Research interests: noninvasive means for studying individual differences in human brain and behavior, including: psychoacoustics, otoacoustic emissions, electromyography, electrocardiography, eye movements, evoked potentials, MRI, quantitative electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, single-photon emission tomography, positron emission tomography, functional MRI; psychoimmunoneuroendocrinology in humans, especially prenatal hormonal influences on access to right- and left-brain skills.

Teaching experience: middle-school and high-school research internships; undergraduate and graduate classroom instruction; graduate thesis and dissertation direction (15 PhD committees, 7 as director); post-doctoral research students

Memberships past & present: Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, International Society of Phonetic Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Acoustical Society of America, Society for Neuroscience, Association for Research in Otolaryngology.

Selected Publications

Lauter, J.L. (1982) Dichotic identification of complex sounds. J Acoust Soc Amer 7l: 70l-707.

Lauter, J.L. (1983) Stimulus characteristics and relative ear advantages. J Acoust Soc Amer 74: l-l7.

Lauter, J.L., and I.J. Hirsh (1985) Speech as temporal pattern. Speech Comm 4: 4l-54.

Lauter, J.L., P. Herscovitch, C. Formby, M.E. Raichle (1985) Tonotopic organization in human auditory cortex revealed by positron emission tomography. Hearing Res 20: l99-205.

Lauter, J.L. (Editor) (1985) The planning and production of speech: report of the conference.[ASHA Report #l5], American Speech/Language and Hearing Association: Rockville MD.

Lauter, J.L. (1985) Respiratory function in speech production by normally-hearing and hearing-impaired talkers: a review. In J.L. Lauter (Ed.), The planning and production of speech:report of the conference. ASHA: Rockville MD; pp. 58-60.

Lauter, J.L., and R.L. Loomis (1986) Individual differences in auditory electric responses: comparisons of between-subject and within-subject variability. I. Absolute latencies of brainstem vertex-positive peaks. Scand Audiol l5: l67-l72.

Lauter, J.L., P. Herscovitch, and M.E. Raichle (1988) Human auditory physiology studied with positron emission tomography. In J.Syka and R.B. Masterton (Eds.), Auditory Pathway. Plenum: NY; pp. 313-317.

Lauter, J.L. (1992) Processing asymmetries for complex sounds: Comparisons between behavioral ear advantages and electrophysiological asymmetries based on qEEG. Brain Cognit 19:1-20.

Lauter, J.L. (1992) Imaging techniques and auditory processing. In J. Katz, N. Stecker, and D. Henderson (Eds.), Central Auditory Processing: A Transdisciplinary View. NY: Mosby; pp. 93-115.

Lauter, J.L. and R.G. Karzon (1990) Individual differences in auditory electric responses: comparisons of between-subject and within-subject variability. V. Amplitude-variability comparisons in early, middle, and late responses. Scand Audiol 19: 201-206.

Lauter, J.L., and R.F. Oyler (1992) Latency stability of auditory brainstem responses in children aged 10-12 years compared with younger children and adults. Brit J Audiol 26: 245-253.

Lauter, J.L., and S. B. Wood (1993) Auditory-brainstem synchronicity in dyslexia measured using the REPs/ABR protocol. Ann NY Acad Sci 682: 377-379.

Lauter, J.L., R.F. Oyler, and J. M. Lord-Maes (1993) Amplitude stability of auditory brainstem responses in two groups of children compared with adults. Brit J Audiol 27: 263-271.

Lauter, J.L. (1995) Visions of speech and language: Noninvasive imaging techniques and their applications to the study of human communication. In H. Winitz (Ed.), Human Communication and Its Disorders, Vol. IV. Timonium MD: York Press; pp. 277-390.

Lauter, J.L. (1997) Noninvasive brain imaging in speech motor control and stuttering: Choices and challenges. In W. Hulstijn, H.Peters, P. Van Lieshout (Eds.) Speech production: Motor control, brain research, and fluency disorders. Amsterdam: Elsevier; pp. 233-257.

Lauter, J.L., H. Richey, S. Gilmore, O. Lynch (1998) Putting the 'central' back in Central Auditory Processing. J Develop Learn Disord 2: 51-106.

Lauter, J.L. (1998) Neuroimaging and the Trimodal Brain: Applications for developmental communication neuroscience. Folia Phoniatr. Logoped 50: 118-145.

Lauter, J.L. (1998) Neurophysiological self-control: Modulation in all thin gs. J Comm Disord 31:543-549.

Lauter, J.L. (1999) Neuroimaging in developmental speech and language pathology. In: P. Dejonckere & H.F.M. Peters (Eds,) Communication and its disorders: A science in progress. Nijmegen: Nijmegen Univ. Press; pp. 499-502.

Lauter, J.L., S. Wood, O. Lynch, L. Schoeffler (1999) Behavioral and neurophysiological effects of meclizine in young adults. Percep Motor Skills 88:707-732.

Lauter, J.L., J.M. Lord-Maes, C. Baldwin (1999) Repeated evoked potentials (REPs) in multiple sclerosis: Demonstration of a new tool for individual neurological assessment. Tejas 23: 53-60.

Hawkins, L.K. and J.L. Lauter (1999) The effects of age upon ABR waveform latency stability. Tejas 23: 56-68.

Lauter, J.L. (1999) The Handshaking Model of brain function: Notes toward a theory. Med Hypoth 52:435-445.

Lauter, J.L. (1999) Central auditory processing. Curr Opin Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 7: 274-281.

Lauter, J.L. (1999) Functional asymmetries and the Trimodal Brain: Dimensions and individual differences. J Develop Learn Disord 3:181-260.

Lauter, J.L. (2000) The AXS battery and neurological fingerprints: Meeting the challenge of individual differences in human brain/behavior relations. Behav Res Meth Instru Comput 32: 180-190.

Lauter, J.L. (2002) Neuroimaging: How understanding individual differences can improve your clinical practice. Invited 3-hr video presentation with manual. Rockville MD: ASHA.

Lauter, J.L. (2003) The Trimodal Brain and reading I: A new synthesis and some predictions. J Develop Learn Disord 7: 65-84.

Lauter, J.L. & P.F. McKane (2003) The Trimodal Brain and reading II: Preliminary data on the co-occurrence of problems in phonemic awareness and eye-movement coordination. J Develop Learn Disord 7: 85-96.

Lauter, J.L. (Editor) (2004) All in good time: A tribute to Ira J. Hirsh. Seminars in Hearing 25(3). [A special issue with 9 articles by 12 contributors]

Lauter, J. L. (2004) Introduction. In J.L. Lauter (Ed), All in good time: A tribute to Ira J. Hirsh. Seminars in Hearing 25: 207.

Lauter, J.L. (2004) New approaches to understanding the human brain: Three theoretical models and a test battery. In J.L. Lauter (Ed), All in good time: A tribute to Ira Hirsh. Seminars in Hearing 25: 269-280.

Lauter, J.L. (2007) The EPIC Model of Functional Asymmetries: Implications for research on laterality in the auditory and other systems. Frontiers in Bioscience 12: 3734-3756. www.biosciences.org

Lauter, J.L. (2008) How is Your Brain Like a Zebra? Xlibris. [podcast @ neuroscene.com]

Abbott, S., J.L. Lauter, & D.A. Dalton (2009) Predictors of phoneme and stress perception in undergraduate students of singing. J Voice 23: 460-469.

Lauter, J.L., E. Mathukutty, & B. Scott (2009) How can a video game cause panic attacks? 1. Effects of an auditory stressor on the human brainstem. Proceedings of Meetings in Acoustics (POMA) online at http://scitation.aip.org (search Lauter) [Press release version at www.acoustics.org/press/158th/lauter.htm]; featured on NPR's Loh-Down on Science show, podcast online at http://media.scpr.org/audio/ldos/20100503_ldos.mp3).

Ninness, C., J. L. Lauter, M. Coffee, L. Clary, E. Kelly, M. Rumph, R. Rumph, B. Kyle, & S. K. Ninness (2012) Behavioral and physiological neural network analyses: A common pathway toward pattern recognition and prediction. Psych Record 62: 1-20.

Lauter, J.L. (2013) A Year of Haiku. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2013) Light from the Left: poems on paintings by Rembrandt. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2013) Sonora Spring Haiku; poems & photographs. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2014) Pineywoods Summer Haiku; poems & photographs. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2014) Rockies Autumn Haiku; poems & photographs. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2014) Coastal Bend Winter Haiku; poems & photographs. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2014) Lanana Creek Haiku; poems & photographs. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2016) Lady Slipper Trail Haiku; poems & photographs. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2017) Konza Tallgrass Prairie Haiku; poems & photographs. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2017) The Poet in the Park: Wallace Stevens and Elizabeth Park; poems & photographs. Stephen F. Austin State University Press.

Lauter, J.L. (2021) Green is Certain; An autobiography with selected poems, Vol I, 1944-1962. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2021) Green is Certain; An autobiography with selected poems, Vol II, 1962-1966. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2022) Perturbations; An autobiography with selected poems, Tucson & Denver, 1966-1971. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2022) The Long Hot Summer 2022; Haiku and photographs. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2022) Neural Rainbow - The Center, the Perimeter, and the Brain; A new view of human nature, Vol I, The origins of the rainbow. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2023) Neural Rainbow - The Center, the Perimeter, and the Brain; A new view of human nature, Vol II, The rainbow distorted. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (2023) Neural Rainbow - The Center, the Perimeter, and the Brain; A new view of human nature, Vol III, Living under the rainbow. Xlibris.

Lauter, J.L. (In progress) Becquerel's Plate; An autobiography with selected poems and scientific works, Vol I, St. Louis, 1971-1985.