Dr. Tucker is interested in the neural mechanisms of experience and behavior. His research uses methods of cognitive psychology to assess the influence of specific forms of emotional arousal, such as anxiety and depression. To assess the neural activity associated with emotional states and cognitive operations, this research includes computerized analysis of the electrical activity of the brain with dense array EEG measures. In addition, electrical currents are applied to the brain through noninvasive surface (EEG) electrodes, in the method called Transcranial Electrical Stimulation (TES).

A longstanding interest is mechanisms of the limbic system that seem to regulate learning and memory according to strategic motivational controls. For example, anxiety may engage the amygdala and ventral limbic networks that not only focus immediate attention, but facilitate continuing consolidation of threat-related information.

Current research involves TES to synchronize the slow waves of sleep, to improve sleep and thereby improve memory consolidation. This research examines multiple features of the neurophysiology of sleep that may be important for memory. These include the corticothalamic control of sleep spindles or the frontal and medial temporal circuits that generate the slow waves of sleep.

A related line of research examines the disruption of limbic control of cerebral excitability in epilepsy. The same limbic and thalamic mechanisms that regulate the excitability of the cerebral hemisphere in memory consolidation seem to become abnormal when a person develops a seizure disorder.

For more information, visit Dr. Tucker's website: www.belco.tech

Selected Publications:

Holmes, M.D., Feng, R., Wise, M.V., Ma, C., Ramon, C., Wu, J., Luu, P., Hou, J., Pan, L., and Tucker, D.M. (2019). Safety of slow-pulsed transcranial electrical stimulation in actute spike suppression. Ann Clin Transl Neuro, 6(12): 2579-2585.

Fernandez-Corazza, M., Turovets, S., Luu, P., Price, N., Muravchik, C.H., & Tucker, D. (2018). Skull Modeling Effects in Conductivity Estimates Using Parametric Electrical Impedance Tomography. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng, 65(8), 1785-1797.

Ramon, C., Holmes, M.D., Wise, M.V., Tucker, D.M., Jenson, K., & Kinn, S.R. (2018). Oscillatory Patterns of Phase Cone Formations near to Epileptic Spikes Derived from 256-Channel Scalp EEG Data. Comput Math Methods Med, 2018, 14-29.

Kuo, C.C., Tucker, D.M., Luu, P., Jenson, K., Tsai, J.J., Ojemann, J.G., & Holmes, M.D. (2018) EEG source imaging of epileptic activity at seizure onset. Epilepsy Research, 146, 160-171.

Fernandez-Corazza, M., Turovets, S., Luu, P., Anderson, E., & Tucker, D. (2017). "Transcranial electrical neuromodulation based on the reciprocity principle." Frontiers in Psychiatry.

Tucker, D.M., Review: The Feeling of Meaning. Reviewed Work: The Aesthetics of Emotion: Up the Down Staircase of the Mind-Body by Gerald C. Cupchik. The American Journal of Psychology. Vol. 130, No. 4 (Winter 2017), pp. 532-534.

Kuo, C.C., Ha, T., Ebbert, A.M., Tucker, D.M., & Dishion, T.J. (2017). Dynamic Responses in Brain Networks to Social Feedback: A Dual EEG Acquisition Study in Adolescent Couples.  Front Comput Neurosci, 11:46. doi: 10.3389/fncom.2017.00046

Luu, P., Caggiano, D.M., Geyer, A., Lewis, J., Cohn, J., & Tucker, D.M. (2014). Time-course of cortical networks involved in working memory. Front Hum Neurosci, 8, 4. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00004

Kuo, C.C., Luu, P., Morgan, K.K., Dow, M., Davey, C., Song, J., Malony, A.D., and Tucker, D.M. (2014). Localizing movement-related primary sensorimotor corticles with multi-band EEG frequency changes and functional MRI. PLoS One 9 (11): e112103.

Salman, A., Malony, A., Turovets, S., Volkov, B., Ozog, D., & Tucker, D.M. (2014). Future human brain neuroimaging and high-performance computing. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 1-23.

Waters, A.C., & Tucker, D.M. (2013). Positive and negative affect in adolescent self-evaluation: psychometric information in single trials used to generate dimension-specific ERPs and neural source models. Psychophysiology, 50(6), 538-549. doi: 10.1111/psyp.12035

Tucker, D.M. & Luu, P. (2012). Cognition and Neural Development. New York, Oxford University Press.

Tucker, D.M. & Holmes, M.D. (2010).  Fractures and bindings of consciousness. American Scientist, 99, 32-39.

Tucker, D. M., Waters, A. C., & Holmes, M. D. (2009). Transition from Cortical Slow Oscillations of Sleep to Spike-Wave Seizures. Clinical Neurophysiology, 120, 2055–2062.

Tucker, D. M. (2007). Mind From Body: Experience From Neural Structure. New York: Oxford University Press.

Tucker, D. M., Luu, P., & Derryberry, D. (2005). Love hurts: The evolution of empathic concern through the encephalization of nociceptive capacity. Dev Psychopathol, 17(3), 699-713.