In LiSReC we are have state-of-the-art equipment to conduct cutting-edge research.  This equipment includes:-

• An Embla N7000 polysomnography system.  This is one of the leading systems designed specifically to monitor sleep for research purposes.  It has 32 unipolar referential channels for measuring EEG and EOG, 8 bipolar channels for measuring ECG and EMG, and a Patient Unit which contains built-in sensors for movement, position and heart rate, and  has connectors for add-on sensors fo further physiological measurements including pulse oximetry.

• Three home Sleep Profiler systems.  These new devices are designed to allow self-administered sleep monitoring in the comfort of your home.  Very easy to use, and complete with instruction leaflets and videos, the device uses disposable dry electrodes to monitor EEG and EOG from prefrontal locations together with facial EMG.  Accompanying software automatically scores sleep according to standard criteria, giving full polysomnography.  Approved for clinical use by the FDA, the devices are also very useful in a research setting.

• Eight Actiwatch 2 actigraphy systems.  These use light and movement sensors to provide highly accurate reports of exact sleep times and durations, using the accompanying Actiware software.  The watches can be given to participants to take home and wear for 24 hours, providing us with an objective measure of their sleep which can be compared with subjective sleep diaries.

• A PC equipped specifically set up to measure behavioural performance on a number of cognitive and memory tasks, and conducting statistical analyses of data.  Installed software includes:-
  • SuperLab:  psychology experiment and stimulus presentation software.
  • PEBL:  the Psychology Experiment Building Language is experiment software with its own programming language and accompanied by a large battery of popular tests ready to use.
  • RemLogic:  sleep software from Embla, designed to control the N7000 polysomnography system.  This software can be used for standardised sleep scoring, both manually by an experimenter and with a scoring assistant to provide automated guidance.  The software can also produce a variety of reports based on participant data, and can be used to manage the library of participant recordings.
  • Actiware:  actigraphy software designed to be used in conjunction with the Actiwatch 2 actigraphy watches.  The software produces a profile of activity, rest and sleep in a fully automated way based on the data recorded by the actigraphy watch.
  • MATLAB:  general-purpose mathematical software widely used throughout academia. We have the latest version together with most of the optional toolboxes which can be used for experiment creation, analysis tool creation, statistical analysis, and batch processing.  It also provides a base for additional specific software packages.
  • EEGLAB:  a free add-on for Matlab which is designed specifically for EEG analysis. Sleep recordings can be imported by this software, which enables spectral analysis to be carried out.
  • SPSS:  software for statistical analysis of data.  This can be used for almost any type of numerical (and some non-numerical) data, including behavioural data from experiments in memory and cognition.