Bruce J. Gluckman

Bruce J. Gluckman, PhD
Associate Director, Penn State Center for Neural Engineering
Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics
Associate Professor of Neurosurgery

212 Earth-Engineering Sciences Building
University Park, PA 16802
(814) 865-0178
(815) 550-2150 Fax
Send E-Mail BruceGluckman@psu.edu

http://www.esm.psu.edu
http://www.esm.psu.edu/gluckman

Research Interests

I am an experimental physicist with interests in dynamical and pattern forming systems. For the past decade or so I have concentrated on understanding the dynamics of neural systems, how group dynamics form or emerge from the coupled dynamics of individual units, and how to measure and interact with these systems. Two organizing threads of my research have been the development of a novel neural interface based on applied low frequency (f«100Hz) electric fields, and the understanding and control of seizure dynamics.

In the mid '90s, Steven Schiff and I rediscovered that applied low frequency content (f«100Hz) electric fields can be used to modulate neuronal excitability and thereby interact with brain networks. This mode of interaction has many advantages over classical pulse stimulation, which activates neuronal firing. For sufficiently low frequency, the effect is to polarize highly asymmetric neurons such as pyramidal neurons aligned with the field. The polarization shifts the transmembrane potential at the soma either closer to or further away from the threshold for action potential initiation. This modulates the neuron's response to its normal input, and remains for the duration of the applied field. The modulation is proportional to the applied field amplitude, and therefore is a signed and graded response. We developed in brain slice experiments techniques for simultaneously recording neural activity of the networks while stimulating with fields. This allows us to create true continuous feedback systems both for probing how their dynamics evolve as well as to control and stabilize their dynamics.

Recently, I've translated this work for applications in intact brain, and have developed a prototype stimulation and recording system for applications in chronically implanted animals. We are now using this prototype to develop seizure control algorithms.

Penn State Center for Neural Engineering

The new Penn State Center for Neural Engineering, an intercollege center bridging the Colleges of Engineering, Medicine and Science, was Chartered in June, 2007. With Professor Steven J. Schiff as the founding Director, the Center will occupy 9,000 square feet of space in the new Life Sciences II Building, a structure which will bring together faculty and laboratories from Materials Science and Life Sciences at Penn State. Our objective is to use an integrated application of engineering, scientific, and mathematical principles to address questions in systems neuroscience, dynamical diseases of the nervous systems, and developing smart neural prosthetics. Center details, including ongoing research and seminar series, are available at http://www.esm.psu.edu/CNE

Gluckman Lab
Gluckman Lab People.

Publications
scientific articles published in refereed journals | Invited Contributions and Reviews

Education & Training

• BS, Engineering Physics, Univ. Illinois UC 1988
• PhD, Physics (J. Gollub), Univ. Pennsylvania, 1994
• ONR Postdoctoral Fellow, NSWC Carterock

Funding

• NIH R01, PI Electric Field as Novel Neuronal Interface
• NIH R01, Co-Investigator Dynamics and Control of Neuronal Pattern Formation
• NIH R01, Co-Investigator CRCNS: Mechanisms of wave propagation in neuronal tissue

Miscellaneous

• Organizer, Experimental Chaos Conferences (6-9). The next ECC meeting will be June 2008, in Catania, Italy
  
• Session Organizer, 3rd International Workshop on Epileptic Seizure Prediction, Freiburg, Germany, 9/29-10/2, 2007