Hal Blumenfeld


Hal Blumenfeld is a Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Neurosurgery at Yale University. He is an expert on brain mechanisms of consciousness and on altered consciousness in epilepsy. As director of the Yale Clinical Neuroscience Imaging Center he leads multi-disciplinary research and is also well known for his teaching contributions in neuroanatomy and clinical neuroscience.

Biography

Blumenfeld was born in California, grew up in New York and began his career in Bioelectrical Engineering at Harvard University. His passion for science would lead him to Columbia University where, working with Eric Kandel and Steven Siegelbaum, he obtained his PhD in Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and his MD. He completed his internal medicine internship at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and entered the field of neurology completing a three-year residency program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. But it wasn't until he completed his fellowship in Epilepsy working with Susan and Dennis Spencer and with David McCormick at Yale University's School of Medicine that he would find his true calling. The main goal of Blumenfeld's career has been to understand the processes of diminished consciousness in seizures, enable recovery of mental function during and after seizures, and to advance treatments thereby improving the lives of people living with epilepsy. His laboratory explores the brain when consciousness is impaired by epileptic seizures using advanced brain imaging methods, electrical measurements and testing of behavior. By understanding the processes of awareness, attention and arousal Blumenfeld hopes to restore normal consciousness to patients with epilepsy and other brain disorders.

Scientific contributions

Professor Blumenfeld has studied brain networks in different kinds of seizures as well as normal brain function. Using EEG and fMRI at the same time during an absence seizure his research team is able to determine why children with absence seizures become unconscious.
Temporal lobe seizures are the most common form of localized epilepsy. Blumenfeld proposed the “Network Inhibition Hypothesis” which posits that temporal lobe seizures disrupt awareness, attention, and information processing because of depressed arousal function in the brain. In support of this theory, his research team has found sleep-like changes in the brain during these types of seizures. Using state-of-the-art technology, they are able to reveal the processes of these changes, and to test new treatment approaches including deep brain stimulation to restore normal consciousness.
One crucial goal is the prevention of epilepsy before it begins. Blumenfeld found important evidence that early and effective medical treatment of both animal models and human patients with absence epilepsy improves long-term outcome. This is a major shift from current treatment strategies which view seizure medications as suppressing the symptoms, not the underlying disease.
Through active collaborations with Fahmeed Hyder Blumenfeld's direct recordings of the electrical activity of brain cells improves the analysis of indirect neuroimaging measurements of brain functions by fMRI.
Dr. Blumenfeld and his team have been able to determine that so called generalized tonic-clonic seizures are in fact localized to specific bilateral cortical-subcortical networks. These findings may help produce targeted therapies with better effectiveness and fewer side effects.
Other important innovations in Blumenfeld's work include using virtual-reality driving simulation during video/EEG monitoring to evaluate driving safety in patients with epilepsy. In addition, his research group developed a prospective bedside testing battery, the Responsiveness in Epilepsy Scale. These testing methods provide better information to patients and physicians making decisions about driving, and may help identify brain areas crucial for impaired awareness in epilepsy.
Dr. Blumenfeld has also developed two new approaches to target epilepsy surgery to the correct location in the brain: 1. 3D color movies of the brainwave show where the seizures start, making safe and effective surgery much more feasible. 2. Innovative analysis methods with SPECT blood flow imaging that can pinpoint the region for surgical planning.
Using powerful brain imaging methods and electrical recordings Blumenfeld recently found that normal conscious perception of visual stimuli is accompanied by a cascade of activity moving through the brain in less than one second. These pictures provide a new view of how the brain normally processes information to create a conscious experience.

Teaching contributions

As author of the widely acclaimed textbook Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases Blumenfeld has inspired many students to study the brain's structure and function and to enter the fields of neurosciences, neurology, neurosurgery and related disciplines. The textbook is used in over half the medical schools in the United States and throughout the world.

Awards

Books