  The hyperfine interactions of the constituent quark model provide a natural
explanation for many nucleon properties, including the Delta-N splitting, the
charge radius of the neutron, and the observation that the proton's quark
distribution function ratio d(x)/u(x)->0 as x->1. The hyperfine-perturbed quark
model also makes predictions for the nucleon spin-dependent distribution
functions. Precision measurements of the resulting asymmetries A_1^p(x) and
A_1^n(x) in the valence region can test this model and thereby the hypothesis
that the valence quark spin distributions are "normal".
