Dr. Artur Luczak


Phone: (403) 394-3974
e-mail: luczak@uleth.ca
Office: EP 1216
Lab: EP 1241

Teaching

  • Applied Statistics for Neuroscience Research (NEUR 3850B, Spring 2012)
  • Introduction to Programming for Neurobiologists (Matlab) (NEUR 3850A, Spring 2012)
  • Stress and Brain Function (Fall 2011, NEUR 4850 - together with Dr. GA Metz)
  • Computational Neuroscience (2010)

Students interested in the above topics may also apply for Independent study in my lab.

Research Interests

The brain is composed of billions of interconnected cells, creating the most complex system within the body. To study how such combined neuronal activity underlies an animal's processing of information, Dr. Luczak records signal simultaneously from a large number of neurons using a novel technique: multi-site silicon microelectrodes. Such parallel recordings from groups of neurons in the cortex and in subcortical structures are helping to understand information processing and memory formation in the brain. His lab also investigates how relations between neuronal populations are distorted with ageing and with different neurological disorders like schizophrenia and Alzheimer disease. In pursuit of his research goals, Dr. Luczak combines experiments with development of sophisticated data analysis methods and computer models.

Biography

Dr. Artur Luczak received a M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering, and in 2002 he obtained a Ph.D. from Jagiellonian University, Poland. During that time he was also awarded fellowships in the Netherlands, France, and Italy. During his postdoctoral training at Yale University and at Rutgers University, he studied information processing in neuronal populations using experimental and theoretical methods. In 2009, Dr. Luczak joined the University of Lethbridge as an assistant professor.

Degrees

  • Ph.D - Jagiellonian Univ., Poland.
  • M.Sc - Wroclaw University of Technology.

Recent Publications

  1. Gomez Palacio Schjetnan A, Luczak A. Recording Large-scale Neuronal Ensembles with Silicon Probes in the Anesthetized Rat. J Vis Exp. in press (2011). Video. Paper.
  2. Luczak A. Measuring neuronal branching patterns using model-based approach. Front. Comput. Neurosci. 4:135 (2010). Paper. Code.
  3. Harris KD, Bartho P, Chadderton P, Curto C, de la Rocha J, Hollender L, Itskov V, Luczak A, Marguet SL, Renart A, Sakata S. How do neurons work together? Lessons from auditory cortex. Hearing Research, 1-17 (2010).
  4. Luczak A, Barthó P, Harris KD. Spontaneous events outline the realm of possible sensory responses in the auditory cortex. Neuron 62 (2009). Paper.
  5. Barthó P, Curto C, Luczak A, Marguet S, Harris KD. Population coding of tone stimuli in auditory cortex: dynamic rate vector analysis. Eur. J. Neurosc. 30 (2009).
  6. Luczak A, Barthó P, Marguet SL, Buzsáki G, Harris KD. Sequential structure of neocortical spontaneous activity in vivo. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 104 (2007).
  7. Luczak A. Spatial embedding of neuronal trees modeled by diffusive growth. J. Neurosci. Methods 157 (2006). Paper. Code.
  8. Luczak A, Narayanan NS. Spectral representation – analyzing single-unit activity in extracellularly recorded neuronal data without spike sorting. J. Neurosci. Methods 144 (2005). Paper. Code.
  9. Luczak A, Hackett T, Kajikawa Y, Laubach M. Multivariate receptive field mapping in marmoset auditory cortex. J. Neurosci. Methods 136 (2004). Paper. Code.