Need Statement

There is a need to develop a closed-loop system that determines the sleep-wake states of mice in real time and accordingly delivers an optical output exciting Protein Kinase A, for neuroscience researchers studying sleep to determine how the activation of Protein Kinase A affects sleep in mice, and further, in humans.

Project Scope

A closed-loop system is a setup where the output is adjusted based on the input. This closed-loop system should use real-time inputs from electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), and an accelerometer to determine the sleep-wake states of the mice. Based on the detected sleep state, the system should deliver optical stimulation to activate PKA in the hippocampus using optogenetics. To achieve this, the following three-part system must be delivered: 

  1. Hardware for sleep data inputs, which include EEG/EMG/and accelerometer implants, and a preamplifier/amplifier system
  2. Software that determines the sleep state based on the input
  3. And hardware for the optical output that excites PKA.

Specifications

Our most critical hardware specs includes:

  1. Keeping the total weight of all wearable implants under 4g, so as to not hinder the mouse’s movement 
  2. Keeping the wire connections from all implants chew resistant, since mice like to and can chew through wire 
  3. Sampling EEG at at least 50Hz, since the frequencies we want to pick up are between 1-16Hz. 
  4. Lastly, we need to create at least 2 stimulation patterns for the optical output.