ShEEP Request for Synchronized Neuro- And Psycho-behavioral Laboratory (SANPL) Core

Veterans Affairs Med Ctr San Francisco, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

We propose to build and run the Synchronized Neuro- And Psycho-behavioral Laboratory (SNAPL) Core in order to provide the SFVAMC with the capability to simultaneously capture and record synchronized neurophysiology, psychophysiology, behavior, eye gaze, pupil dilation, muscle tension, and skin temperature in individual and dyadic interactions. This core facility will allow for novel, high-impact investigations of multiple VA-relevant clinical disorders including addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and schizophrenia as well as clinically relevant modalities including investigations of the interpersonal mechanisms of the psychotherapeutic process. Additionally, this facility will provide cutting edge opportunities for recording of clinical sessions and assessments in order to enhance patient care and clinician learning. We will purchase an integrated and flexible system from BIOPAC Systems, Inc., the leader in physiology measurement and analysis. This system will include two MOBITA-W electroencephalogram (EEG) systems with 32 wireless channels each that will allow synchronized recording of neural waveform activity in two subjects on a millisecond timescale. Additionally, two wearable eye-tracking systems, EYE-GLASSES-PRO, will be included. The EYE-GLASSES-PRO allows measurement of the scene viewed by each subject while simultaneously measuring where in the scene each subject is looking. Being able to quantify the eye-gaze of both subjects simultaneously will allow for innovative analysis of individual and joint attention allocation. Furthermore, these devices also allow measurement of pupil dilation, which is useful because pupil dilation is known to be an index of important psychological phenomena including arousal, attention and cognitive load. Because several psychiatric disorders (e.g. schizophrenia, PTSD) are characterized by deficits in arousal and/or attention, this will allow for better understanding and assessment of several patient groups. The system will also include the capability to simultaneous record high-definition video from multiple cameras. This allows both online and offline fine-grain analysis of behavior. Additionally, muscle tension (hand dynamometer) and skin temperature (temperature transducer) will be recorded using dynamometers and temperature transducers. The system will also be capable of simultaneous measurement of several indices of the autonomic nervous system such as electrodermal activity (EDA) electromyography (EMG), electrocardiogram (ECG), cardiac impedance, and respiration (RSP), as well as gastric myoelectrical activity using an electrogastrogram (EGG). These physiological responses can be used as objective indicators of psychological functions (e.g. arousal, fear potentiation and defensive reactions, etc.) that can be linked to deficits in multiple psychiatric disorders. Importantly, the system comes fully capable of synchronizing all data channels including EEG, eye-gaze, video, and psychophysiology on a millisecond timescale. This allows for unprecedented multimodal analysis of human behavior. Finally, all responses will be recorded via wireless components and accessories allowing for flexible and comfortable recording in individual and dyadic interactions.