astronomy

Hal Blumenfeld

Hal Blumenfeld is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hal Blumenfeld rather than just read about it. In short: Hal Blumenfeld (born March 28, 1962) is a professor of neurology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Yale University. His focus is on brain mechanisms of consciousness and on altered consciousness in epilepsy.

Key takeaways

Hal Blumenfeld belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hal Blumenfeld to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hal Blumenfeld from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hal Blumenfeld (born March 28, 1962) is a professor of neurology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Yale University. His focus is 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 Bio-electrical Engineering at Harvard University (1984). His passion for science would lead him to Columbia University, where, working with Eric Kandel and Steven Siegelbaum, he obtained his PhD (1990) in Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and his MD (1992). He completed his internal medicine internship at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center(1993) and entered the field of neurology, completing a three-year residency program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston (1996). He then completed his fellowship at Yale University's School of Medicine.

Career Blumenfeld dedicated his professional career to studying brain networks in various types of seizures as well as normal brain function. Using multiple modalities of brain imaging in humans and animal models, his research has made significant contributions towards determining why children with absence seizures become unconscious. Through active collaborations with Fahmeed Hyder (also at Yale), Blumenfeld's direct recordings of the electrical activity of brain cells improved the analysis of indirect neuroimaging measurements of brain functions, utilizing fMRI. Blumenfeld is the author of the textbook Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases. The textbook is used in over half the medical schools in the United States and throughout the world.

Awards 2017 - Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke 2017 - Clinical Science Research Award, American Epilepsy Society 2015 - Graduate Mentor Award, Yale University 2007 - Francis Gilman Blake Award, Yale University, School of Medicine 2005 - Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Research Award, American Academy of Neurology

Publications

Books Blumenfeld, H. (2021). Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases, 3rd Ed. Sinauer Associates/Oxford University Press. Cavanna, A.E., Nani, A., Blumenfeld, H., Laureys, S. [Eds.] (2013). Neuroimaging of Consciousness. Springer. Faingold, C., Blumenfeld, H. [Eds.] (2014). Neuronal Networks in Brain Function, CNS Disorders, and Therapeutics. Elsevier ISBN 9780124158641.

Articles X Herman W, Smith RE, Kronemer SI, Watsky RE, Chen WC, M Gober L, Touloumes GJ, Khosla M, Raja A, Horien CL, C Morse E, L Botta K, Hirsch LJ, Alkawadri R, Gerrard JL, Spencer DD, Blumenfeld H:A Switch and Wave of Neuronal Activity in the Cerebral Cortex During the First Second of Conscious Perception. Cereb Cortex. 2017 Nov. PMID 29194517 Guo JN, Kim R, Chen Y, Negishi M, Jhun S, Weiss S, Ryu JH, Bai X, Xiao W, Feeney E, Rodriguez-Fernandez J, Mistry H, Crunelli V, Crowley MJ, Mayes LC, Constable RT, Blumenfeld H: Impaired consciousness in patients with absence seizures investigated by functional MRI, EEG, and behavioural measures: a cross-sectional study. Lancet Neurol. 2016 Dec. PMID 27839650 Kundishora AJ, Gummadavelli A, Ma C, Liu M, McCafferty C, Schiff ND, Willie JT, Gross RE, Gerrard J, Blumenfeld H: Restoring Conscious Arousal During Focal Limbic Seizures with Deep Brain Stimulation. Cereb Cortex. 2016 Mar 3; 2016 Mar 3. PMID 26941379 Zhan Q, Buchanan GF, Motelow JE, Andrews J, Vitkovskiy P, Chen WC, Serout F, Gummadavelli A, Kundishora A, Furman M, Li W, Bo X, Richerson GB, Blumenfeld H: Impaired Serotonergic Brainstem Function during and after Seizures. J Neurosci. 2016 Mar 2. PMID 26937010 Motelow JE, Li W, Zhan Q, Mishra AM, Sachdev RN, Liu G, Gummadavelli A, Zayyad Z, Lee HS, Chu V, Andrews JP, Englot DJ, Herman P, Sanganahalli BG, Hyder F, Blumenfeld H: Decreased subcortical cholinergic arousal in focal seizures. Neuron. 2015 Feb 4. PMID 25654258 Bailey CJ, Sanganahalli BG, Herman P, Blumenfeld H, Gjedde A, Hyder F: Analysis of time and space invariance of BOLD responses in the rat visual system. Cereb Cortex. 2013 Jan; 2012 Jan 31. PMID 22298731 Blumenfeld H. (2012). Impaired consciousness in epilepsy. The Lancet Neurology, 11: 814–826. Mishra AM, Ellens DJ, Schridde U, Motelow JE, Purcaro MJ, DeSalvo MN, Enev M, Sanganahalli BG, Hyder F, Blumenfeld H: Where fMRI and electrophysiology agree to disagree: corticothalamic and striatal activity patterns in the WAG/Rij rat. J Neurosci. 2011 Oct 19. PMID 22016539 Englot DJ, Yang L, Hamid H, Danielson N, Bai X, Marfeo A, Yu L, Gordon A, Purcaro MJ, Motelow JE, Agarwal R, Ellens DJ, Golomb JD, Shamy MC, Zhang H, Carlson C, Doyle W, Devinsky O, Vives K, Spencer DD, Spencer SS, Schevon C, Zaveri HP, Blumenfeld H: Impaired consciousness in temporal lobe seizures: role of cortical slow activity. Brain. 2010 Dec; 2010 Nov 16. PMID 21081551 Bai X, Vestal M, Berman R, Negishi M, Spann M, Vega C, Desalvo M, Novotny EJ, Constable RT, Blumenfeld H: Dynamic time course of typical childhood absence seizures: EEG, behavior, and functional magnetic resonance imaging. J Neurosci. 2010 Apr 28. PMID 20427649 Englot DJ, Modi B, Mishra AM, DeSalvo M, Hyder F, Blumenfeld H: Cortical deactivation induced by subcortical network dysfunction in limbic seizures. J Neurosci. 2009 Oct 14. PMID 19828814 Blumenfeld H, Varghese GI, Purcaro MJ, Motelow JE, Enev M, McNally KA, Levin AR, Hirsch LJ, Tikofsky R, Zubal IG, Paige AL, Spencer SS: Cortical and subcortical networks in human secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Brain. 2009 Apr; 2009 Apr 1. PMID 19339252 Schridde U, Khubchandani M, Motelow JE, Sanganahalli BG, Hyder F, Blumenfeld H: Negative BOLD with large increases in neuronal activity. Cereb Cortex. 2008 Aug; 2007 Dec 5. PMID 18063563 Blumenfeld H, Klein JP, Schridde U, Vestal M, Rice T, Khera DS, Bashyal C, Giblin K, Paul-Laughinghouse C, Wang F, Phadke A, Mission J, Agarwal RK, Englot DJ, Motelow J, Nersesyan H, Waxman SG, Levin AR: Early treatment suppresses the development of spike-wave epilepsy in a rat model. Epilepsia. 2008 Mar; 2007 Dec 6. PMID 18070091 Blumenfeld H, McNally KA, Vanderhill SD, Paige AL, Chung R, Davis K, Norden AD, Stokking R, Studholme C, Novotny EJ Jr, Zubal IG, Spencer SS: Positive and negative network correlations in temporal lobe epilepsy. Cereb Cortex. 2004 Aug; 2004 Apr 14. PMID 15084494

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Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hal Blumenfeld

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hal Blumenfeld claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hal Blumenfeld before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hal Blumenfeld ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hal Blumenfeld

In research: Hal Blumenfeld appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hal Blumenfeld in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hal Blumenfeld is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1962 births, American biophysicists, American neuroscientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hal Blumenfeld outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hal Blumenfeld in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hal Blumenfeld means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hal Blumenfeld out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hal Blumenfeld in simple terms?

Why does Hal Blumenfeld matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hal Blumenfeld?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hal Blumenfeld.