Development of a computer program classifying rat sleep stages.

Abstract

We developed a simple and precise program for the on-line judgement of the sleep stages of four rats simultaneously for an unlimited period, using a commercially available general purpose signal processor (NEC-Sanei 7T17; 32-bit, 5 MHz, 4 Mbyte, 1 Mbyte 1 floppy disc drive). EEG and EMG were recorded with an 8-channel polygraph (NEC-Sanei, System 380) through electrodes chronically implanted into the brain. The signals were A/D converted every ms and integrated for 2760 ms after full-wave rectification, and the subsequent 2240 ms was used for calculation and further analysis. All data were handled with this 5000 ms as the minimum unit. Then 3 sleep stages, i.e., waking, slow-wave sleep, and REM sleep, were determined by a template matching method from the relative amplitudes and durations of the integrated EEG, EMG and EMG surge data based on algorithms of standard visual amplitude analysis criteria for the sleep-stage classification. An agreement matrix was constructed between the data scored by the visual and by the automatic analysis, and the agreement value was satisfactory, although slight variability was seen in the REM sleep-stage determination. This result indicated that EEG and EMG data analysis is appropriate for researching the circadian rhythmic mechanism of the sleep-wake cycle.