Sleep and EEG Core

The Sleep & EEG Core within the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders (DSCD) at Brigham and Women's Hospital provides an integrated infrastructure and knowledge base in support of research projects that use polysomnography (PSG), quantitative EEG analysis and related methodologies.  The Core consists of a team of specialists lead by the Core director and a chief PSG technologist.  

The Core provides support and services in different areas: 
1) It provides basic training and certification in PSG and EEG instrumentation to technicians and investigators, particularly those conducting studies at the Center for Clinical Investigation (CCI) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  
2) It acts as liaison between DSCD investigators and CCI technical staff, and implements and monitors quality assurance measures.  
3) It carries out standard vigilance state scoring of PSG recordings and different types of waking EEG and electrooculogram analyses.  
4) It carries out spectral analysis of sleep and waking EEG. 
5) It evaluates, acquires, and maintains PSG and EEG equipment used by investigators of the CCI.  
6) It carries out PSG procedures such as sleep screens and multiple sleep latency tests.  
7) It assists investigators in the analysis and interpretation of sleep and EEG data. 
8) It provides a sleep diary with customizable questions that can be administered 1-2 times per day. The diary, used to collect over 85,000 nights of research data to date, includes multiple question-response types (e.g., robust date-time pickers, visual analog scales) in addition to real-time consistency checking. 

Over the years, the Sleep & EEG Core has been a central part of many projects funded by NIH, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) that had a main focus on the physiology of human sleep-wake regulation.  Scientifically, the Core has contributed by providing investigators with important quantitative measures of homeostatic and circadian components of the human sleep-wake regulatory system.

Personnel/Contact Information:

Director:
Director: Stuart Quan, M.D.
Email: Stuart_Quan@hms.harvard.edu

Other Staff:
Chief PSG Technician: Brandon Lockyer, RPSGT 
Phone: (617) 525-6788
Fax: (617) 732-4015 
Email: blockyer@bwh.harvard.edu

Facilities and Equipment:

Location of Core:
Brigham & Women’s Hospital Boston Lying-In, 221 Longwood Ave. Boston, MA 02115 USA

Major Equipment:
The Core manages and uses PSG equipment and software owned by the DSCD. The equipment in particular includes 10 Nox Medical T3, 16 Vitaport-3, and 6 Vitaport-2 digital recording systems. The software includes 10 site licenses of Noxturnal PSG analysis software, 16 site licenses of Vitagraph PSG analysis software, 14 site licenses of Vitascore analysis software, and one license of Somnosoft PSG training software.

Services:

• PSG Data Archiving
• Data Processing and Analysis Support
  • Vigilance state scoring of a sleep recording
  • Conducting sleep EEG spectral analysis
  • Vigilance state scoring of a wake recording
  • Visual scoring of slow eye movements (SEM) in a wake recording
  • Analysis of Karolinska drowsiness test (KDT)
  • Sleep screen scoring
• PSG Procedures
  • Conducting and evaluating overnight sleep screens
  • Conducting and evaluating multiple sleep latency tests (MSLT)
  • Conducting and evaluating maintenance of wakefulness tests
• Training to Staff
  • Training and certification of investigator-hired staff in PSG instrumentation and operation of PSG equipment
  • Training and certification of investigator-hired staff in vigilance state scoring of PSG recordings
  • Training and certification of investigator-hired staff in scoring of PSG derived slow eye movements (SEM)
  • Training and certification of investigator-hired staff in conducting and evaluating multiple sleep latency tests (MSLT) or maintenance of wakefulness tests (MWT)
• PSG Technical and Training Support
• Electronic Sleep Diary
  • Delivers clean, accurate data using real-time logic and quality checks, data visualization, and design
  • Reduces study team time and effort for data collection and cleaning by providing a web-based admin module
  • Improves participation and data quality with user-friendly tools such as calendar reminders, user guides, and intelligent pre-filling of fields
• Other Services: may be negotiated with the investigator

Getting Started:

To inquire about using core services, please contact Brandon Lockyer, RPSGT at 617-525-6788 or by email at blockyer@bwh.harvard.edu.