University of Rochester Sleep & Neurophysiology Research Laboratory

Facilities

The University of Rochester Sleep & Neurophysiology Research Laboratory is located on the basement level of the Psychiatry Department. The lab includes a hotel-like suite, four offices, a conference room, a physical exam room, and an ERP/Psychophysiology chamber. The suite includes four bedrooms, two full baths, a control room, a kitchenette, living/dining room and a laundry room. Two of the bedrooms are RF shielded and two of the bedrooms have sound insulated catheter portals (for studies that require blood sampling or for the infusion of radiopharmaceuticals for imaging studies.) The control room contains the electrophysiologic equipment, four computers dedicated to acquisition of PSG data, two computers dedicated to off-line data processing (sleep scoring, PSA, and Statistical Analysis) and a one terabit data server that is utilized in the collection of data as well as containing a substantial archive of articles and reference material. The bedrooms are connected via intercoms to the control room and the bedrooms can be monitored via infrared video. The laboratory can also implement cognitive neuroscience and medical protocols. In addition to routine polysomnographic assessment, the lab is set up to acquire a broad range of electrophysiologic signals (i.e., EEG, EMG, EOG, EKG, EGG, GSR) and to undertake a variety of signal-processing techniques (e.g., PSA, DPA, ERPs). The location within the medical center provides easy access to medical personnel, biomedical engineering, clinical laboratories (e.g., Human Clinical Chemistries Laboratory) and other research laboratories (e.g., Neuroimaging Laboratory, Psychoneuroendocrine Laboratory, etc.)

Twenty-one computers support day-to-day operations (11 Dell desktops, 4 Dell laptops, 4 Red Barn Computers, 1 Red Barn data server, 1 web server). Three PCs are used for sleep scoring and four for data acquisition. The data server built by Red Barn Technology Group features dual 1.5Gz Opteron processors, 2Gb of 2700 ECC DDR RAM, complimented by 5 SATA 250Gb 72,000rpm hard drives in a 5 level RAID configuration giving the server 1 Terabyte of usable storage that automatically backs up it’s data within the RAID array, all powered by redundant 400 watt power supplies. The four computers that are dedicated to acquisition were designed by our staff and built to order by the Red Barn Technology Group. These PCs utilize mini-ITX mother board infrastructure that contain EDEN processors that generate near zero heat and thus have the capacity to run without fans. Complimenting each processor is 512 Mb of fast page DDR RAM and 40 Gb 10,000 rpm hard drives. A-to-D conversion is accomplished by National Instrument PCI 6033E boards which have 16 bit resolution. Digital PSGs are displayed on 17" digital CRT monitors (for acquisition) and 21” Trinitron CRTs for scoring. Digital PSGs are archived on to 700Mb CD-Rs.

Major Equipment:

4 18 - channel Grass Model 8 electroencephalographs (bench mounted)

2 prototype 18 - channel Krohn - Hite anti-aliasing filter banks (48 db / octave: set point 300 Hz, stop point 400 Hz)

2 LifeLines TrackIt Ambulatory PSG recorders

2 Coulbourn V71 Isolated Skin Conductance couplers

4 Infra-red video systems

4 Intercom systems

32 MiniMitter actigraphs, interface and software

Stellate Harmonie Luna / Sensa Software for each electroencephalograph