Dr. Iftah Biran
My research focuses on the interface between neurology and psychiatry, exploring how brain dysfunction is expressed through subjective experience, behavior, and bodily symptoms. A major focus is Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), including the mechanisms underlying functional motor, sensory, and cognitive symptoms and their relationships with agency, emotion, and body representation.
Additional research addresses neuropsychiatric and cognitive manifestations of neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, aphasia, amnesia, and disorders of awareness. My work combines clinical and neuropsychological investigation with behavioral experiments and computational approaches to language and semantic processing.
A central aim is to integrate clinical neuropsychiatry with contemporary models of brain function, particularly predictive processing and active inference, as well as insights from neuropsychoanalysis, to better understand the relationships between brain processes, subjective experience, and psychopathology.
Behavioral Neuroscience
Clinical Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience
Bloch, D., Livneh, V., Korenblum, S., Alcalay, R.N., Gurevich, T., Biran, I., 2026. Blepharospasm as a research model for understanding the perception of facial expressions. Acta Psychol. (Amst.) 265, 106751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106751
Flores Mosri, D., Abrams, J., Barry, V., Biran, I., Ó’Mórdha, P., Zellner, M., 2026. Insights from Neuropsychoanalysis: developmental questions at the intersection of mind and brain. Neuropsychoanalysis 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2026.2674985
Gur, N., Defrin, R., Beitelman, Y., Biran, I., Goor‐Aryeh, I., Brill, S., Goldsmith, D., Katz, E., Segev, N., Ginsburg, T., Ginzburg, K., 2026. The Link Between Exposure to Traumatic Stress and Chronic Pain: The Mediation Effect of Hyperarousal Is Moderated by Sensitivity to Pain Traumatization. Eur. J. Pain 30, e70349. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.70349
Shir, D., Biran, I., Zalashik, R., Mosek, A., 2026. Unnecessary dental extractions in patients with Persistent Idiopathic Facial Pain: a qualitative and questionnaire-based study of patient perspectives. J. Oral Facial Pain Headache.
Wasserman, G., Biran, I., Zlotogorski Hurvitz, A., 2025. Comment on comment on “Toward ICHD-4: Proposing a broader diagnostic framework for burning mouth syndrome.” Cephalalgia 45, 03331024251362822. https://doi.org/10.1177/03331024251362822
בירן, י., 2025. גלגוליו של הרחם הנודד. אות כתב עת לספרות ולתיאוריה 13, 1–21.
Biran, I., 2024. Fragment of an analysis of a case of hysteria – Dora’s case and Freud’s story. Int. J. Psychoanal. 105, 845–863. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207578.2024.2404360
Rothman, Y., Biran, I., 2024. What happens to a pathological liar with acute amnesia? Neuropsychoanalysis 26, 203–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2024.2429548
Fine, N.B., Ben-Zion, Z., Biran, I., Hendler, T., 2023. Neuroscientific account of Guilt- and Shame-Driven PTSD phenotypes. Eur. J. Psychotraumatology 14, 2202060. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2023.2202060
Biran, I., Book, A., Aviram, L., Bregman, N., Bahagali, E., Tripto, A., 2022. Body Structural Description Impairment in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type I. Front. Psychol. 13.
Biran, I., Kessler, R.J., Olds, D., Zellner, M., 2020. Standing on the shoulders of giants: Integrating affective and computational neuroscience with psychoanalytic theory.
Bregman, N., Kavé, G., Zeltzer, E., Biran, I., Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, 2020. Memory impairment and Alzheimer’s disease pathology in individuals with MCI who underestimate or overestimate their decline. Int. J. Geriatr. Psychiatry 35, 581–588.
Bregman, N., Kavé, G., Shiner, T., Biran, I., 2019. Dissociation in awareness of memory and language decline in Alzheimer’s disease. Int. J. Geriatr. Psychiatry 34, 548–554.
Reznik, J., Keren, O., Morris, J., Biran, I., 2017. Pharmacology Handbook for Physiotherapist. Elsevier, Chatswood, Australia.
Biran, I., 2013. Adam Resurrected: A “Dog’s” Journey from Circus to Asylum, in: Ackerman-Lieberman, P., Zalashik, R. (Eds.), A Jew’s Best Friend? The Image of The Dog Throughout Jewish History. Sussex Academic Press, Brighton, pp. 207–230.
Kavé, G., Heinik, J., Biran, I., 2013. Preserved Morphological Processing in Semantic Dementia. Cogn. Neuropsychol. 29, 550–568.
Levin, N., Soffer, D., Biran, I., Gomori, J.M., Bocher, M., Blumen, S.C., Abramsky, O., Segal, R., Lossos, A., 2008. Leukoencephalopathy with neuroaxonal spheroids (LENAS) presenting as frontotemporal dementia. Isr Med Assoc J 10, 386–7.
Steiner, I., Gotkine, M., Steiner-Birmanns, B., Biran, I., Silverstein, S., Abeliovich, D., Argov, Z., Wirguin, I., 2008. Increased severity over generations of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A. J. Neurol. 255, 813–9.
Zalashik, R., Biran, I., 2008. Lipman Halpern – The 70th Anniversary of The Department of Neurology at The Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center. Harefua 147, 739–743.
Biran, I., Steiner, I., 2006. Abnormal Musical Pacemaker in a Patient with Musical Hallucinations. Eur J Neurol 13, 1378–1380.
Gotkine, M., Biran, I., Steiner, I., 2006. Now Dear I have a Headache! Immediate Improvement of Cluster Headache Following Sexual Activity. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 77, 1296.
Kan, I.P., Biran, I., Thompson-Schill, S.L., Chatterjee, A., 2006. Letter Selection and Letter Assembly in Acquired Dysgraphia. Cogn. Behav. Neurol. 19, 225–236.
Biran, I., Steiner, I., 2001. The speech disorder of Doc in Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Neurology 57, 363–4.
Cohen, O., Steiner-Birmanns, B., Biran, I., Abramsky, O., Honigman, S., Steiner, I., 2001. Recurrence of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis at the previously affected brain site. Arch Neurol 58, 797–801.
Steiner, I., Steiner-Birmanns, B., Levin, N., Hershko, K., Korn-Lubetzki, I., Biran, I., 2001. Spinal cord involvement in uncomplicated herpes zoster. Clin Diagn Lab Immunol 8, 850–1.
Cohen, O., Biran, I., Steiner, I., 2000. Cerebrospinal fluid oligoclonal IgG bands in patients with spinal arteriovenous malformation and structural central nervous system lesions. Arch Neurol 57, 553–7.
Biran, I., Cohen, O., Diment, J., Peyser, A., Bahnof, R., Steiner, I., 1999. Focal, steroid responsive myositis causing dropped head syndrome. Muscle Nerve 22, 769–71.
Leker, R.R., Biran, I., 1999. Unidirectional dyslexia in a polyglot. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 66, 517–9.
Hirshberg, B., Biran, I., Glazer, M., Kramer, M.R., 1997. Hemoptysis: etiology, evaluation, and outcome in a tertiary referral hospital. Chest 112, 440–4.
