Development of an automated noninvasive system for sleep restriction in rodents

描述（由申请人提供）：睡眠剥夺（SD）在现代社会中普遍存在，并造成重大的社会和经济危害。许多人类和动物研究表明，各种形式的SD对心理和身体健康有害。因此，SD被认为是公共卫生面临的一个尚未解决的挑战。越来越需要在动物模型中研究不同形式的SD对生理功能的影响。然而，迫切需要更好的方法。现有的SD系统吞吐量和容量较低，并且难以使用且价格昂贵。在我们的第一阶段项目中，我们开发了一个自动睡眠监测/睡眠剥夺系统的啮齿动物。我们的系统是基于地板传感器，从其中产生自动睡眠评分的数据。我们证明，“手关”自动SD使用我们的方法在技术上是可行的。我们还验证了我们的系统优于其他竞争系统的优势，即我们的方法侵入性更小，选择性更强，耗时更少，更容易使用。基于我们第一阶段项目的成功，我们的第二阶段项目将专注于我们研究产品的商业化。本项目的目标是开发一个统一的，非侵入性的，高通量和低成本的SD系统的小鼠和大鼠。我们的具体目标如下。目标1.开发功能齐全的SD系统，包括多条硬件和软件产品线。硬件的发展。我们将改进、加固和提高我们的鼠标SD系统的可靠性，同时降低大规模生产的成本。由于大鼠在睡眠研究中的应用非常广泛，我们将在小鼠SD系统的基础上开发大鼠SD系统。目标1b。软件开发。我们将开发具有以下创新功能的软件产品：1）通过USB电缆建立双向信息交换，以执行三种常见类型的SD：急性SD，睡眠碎片和慢性睡眠限制; 2）在主机PC上创建用户友好的界面，以进行灵活的实验设计; 3）扩展系统能力，以执行多达64只大鼠或小鼠的同时研究。4)扩展软件功能，以执行组统计分析，包括多组动物的组平均值、标准误差和数据列表，以及5）将软件产品扩展到32位和64位Windows XP、Vista和Windows 7平台。目标2. SD系统的评估和验证，以及“标准化”SD协议的开发系统的验证包括：1）使用EEG评估验证SD后的睡眠丧失和反弹，并验证系统的鲁棒性和易用性，2）研究SD对动物的后果，特别是社会识别/偏好任务，以及3）通过执行不同类型的SD来“标准化”SD协议，以便于比较不同实验室产生的结果，从而开发实验“烹饪书”。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sleep deprivation (SD) occurs universally in modern societies and causes significant social and financial harm. Numerous human and animal studies indicate that various forms of SD are deleterious to mental and physical health. Therefore, SD has been recognized as an unmet challenge to public health. There is increased need to study the effects of different forms of SD on physiological functions in animal models. However, better methods are sorely needed. Existing SD systems have low throughput and capacity and are difficult to use and expensive. In our Phase I project, we have developed an automatic sleep monitoring/sleep deprivation system for rodents. Our system is based on floor sensors, the data from which yield automatic sleep scoring. We demonstrated that "hands-off" automatic SD using our method is technically feasible. We have also verified the advantages of our system over other competing systems, namely, that our method is less invasive, more selective, less time-consuming, and easier to use. Based on the success of our Phase I project, our Phase II project will be focused on the commercialization of our research product. The objective of the present project is to develop a unified, non-invasive, high throughput and low cost SD system for mice and rats. Our specific aims are the follows. Aim 1. Development of a full-featured SD system with multiple lines of hardware and software products Aim 1a. Development of Hardware. We will refine, ruggedize, and make more reliable our mouse SD system while simultaneously lowering the costs for mass production. Because rats are used frequently in sleep research we will develop a rat SD system based on the mouse SD system. Aim 1b. Development of software. We will develop software products with the following innovative features: 1) Establish bi-directional information exchange through USB cable to perform three common types of SD: acute SD, sleep fragmentation and chronic sleep restriction; 2) Create a user-friendly interface for flexible experimental design on the host PC; 3) Expand system capability to perform simultaneous studies in as many as 64 rats or mice. 4) Extend the software functionality to perform group statistical analysis including group means, standard errors and data lists in animals from multiple groups of animals, and 5) Extend the software products to both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 platforms. Aim 2. Evaluation and validation of the SD system, and development of "standardized" SD protocols The validation of the system includes: 1) verification of sleep loss and rebound following SD using EEG evaluation and verification of the robustness and ease of use of the system, 2) investigation of the consequences of SD on animals, especially social recognition/preference tasks, and 3) development of an experimental "cook book" through performing different types of SD to "standardize" SD protocols in order to facilitate comparison results generated by different laboratories.