Development of an automated noninvasive system for sleep restriction in rodents

描述(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。大量的人类和动物研究表明，各种形式的SD对身心健康有害。因此，SD已被认为是公共卫生面临的一个前所未有的挑战。在动物模型中，越来越需要研究不同形式的SD对生理功能的影响。然而，我们迫切需要更好的方法。现有的SD系统具有低吞吐量和低容量，并且难以使用和昂贵。在我们的第一阶段项目中，我们开发了一套啮齿动物睡眠自动监测/睡眠剥夺系统。我们的系统基于地板传感器，从这些传感器获得的数据可以自动进行睡眠评分。我们用我们的方法证明了“不插手”自动标清在技术上是可行的。我们还验证了我们的系统相对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，更易于使用。在我们第一阶段项目取得成功的基础上，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种统一的、非侵入性的、高通量和低成本的小鼠和大鼠SD系统。我们的具体目标如下。目标1.开发具有多个硬件和软件产品系列的全功能SD系统目标1a。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，同时降低批量生产的成本。由于大鼠在睡眠研究中的使用频率很高，我们将在小鼠SD系统的基础上开发一种大鼠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线建立双向信息交换，以执行三种常见的SD类型：急性SD、睡眠碎片和慢性睡眠受限；2)创建一个人性化的界面，在主机上进行灵活的实验设计；3)扩展系统功能，使系统能够同时进行多达大鼠或小鼠的研究。4)扩展软件功能，进行分组统计分析，包括分组平均数、标准误差和多组动物的数据列表；5)将软件产品扩展到32位和位的Windows XP、Vista和Windows 7平台。目的2.SD系统的评估和验证，以及“标准化”SD方案的开发该系统的验证包括：1)使用EEG评估和验证系统的健壮性和易用性来验证SD后的睡眠丢失和反弹，2)调查SD对动物的影响，特别是社会识别/偏好任务，以及3)通过执行不同类型的SD来开发一本实验性的“烹饪手册”，以“标准化”SD方案，以便促进不同实验室产生的比较结果。

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.