|
|
| Studies for Veterans and Civilians |
| |
 Study Procedures |
| |
| |
All procedures will take place at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic on O’Hara Street in Oakland. Our address is 3811 O’Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Parking is provided.
Phase 1
_________________________________________________________________________________
Visit 1: Complete screening questionnaires to determine if you are eligible to participate and provide a blood sample for genetic analysis. (45-60 minutes)
Visit 2: Complete a medical evaluation and an in-person interview to ensure that you meet eligibility criteria to participate. (2 hours) If eligible, you will then receive a small portable device called an ApneaLink to monitor your breathing during sleep for one night at home. You will also receive a sleep diary and an actigraph wristwatch (which monitors sleep and wakefulness) to record your regular sleep schedule for 7-10 days.
Visit 3: Review the results of your at-home sleep monitoring and receive a new actigraph wristwatch to continue monitoring your sleep for another 7-10 days. (45-60 minutes)
Phase 2
_________________________________________________________________________________
Night 1: Sleep overnight according to your normal routine in our sleep laboratory. In the morning you may leave for the day and return in the evening. (1 night)
Nights 2-3: Stay overnight in our sleep laboratory. You will be randomly assigned to one of the following three conditions for Night 2:
• Sleep undisturbed according to your normal routine
• Sleep for the first half of the night, then remain awake for the second half
• Remain awake for the entire night
After completing Night 2, you will spend the following day in our laboratory and will remain awake until your normal bedtime. You will then sleep undisrupted through Night 3, according to your normal routine. This means that the longest amount of time you may be asked to remain awake is approximately 38 hours, if you are assigned to remain awake for all of Night 2. (2 nights, 1 day)
Throughout Phase 2, you will be asked to complete 4 fMRI scans that will record your brain activity while you engage in various mental tasks.
About the fMRI tasks:
You will be asked to perform challenging mental tasks on a computer. While you complete the tasks, we will record your heart rate, pupil dilation, skin conductance (sweat), and brain activity using a procedure called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). An fMRI scan is a test that produces images that are similar to x-ray pictures. We use fMRI to help improve our understanding of the way the brain works when people are feeling different emotions. This method should lead to better treatment for emotional disorders in the future. fMRI uses a large magnet and does not use any radiation.
The magnet used for fMRI is a large tunnel-like machine. You will lie on a table that will move you into the tunnel for a maximum of 1 hour for each of the 4 testing sessions. You will be asked to lie still without moving during the scan. The scanner makes loud, banging sounds during the study, but you will be wearing protective earplugs. You will be able to talk to and hear the replies of the technician who is performing the test. Because you must lie with your head and neck inside the narrow scanner tube, or gantry, you may become anxious and frightened in the enclosed space. Some participants may experience claustrophobic feelings, or fear of enclosed spaces, while in the scanner. If you feel claustrophobic during the scan or for any reason feel that you cannot tolerate remaining in the scanner, the study can be interrupted and you will be able to rest outside of this enclosed area or to terminate the procedure if you choose to do so.
******You may choose to immediately stop this session at any time by alerting the technician using a hand signal and/or squeezing the red ball that we will show you******
After you are done with the experimental procedures in the morning following Night 3, a staff member will meet with you to review the study results with you. Your participation in the research study will then be completed, and you will be free to leave the sleep laboratory.
|
| |
| |
to top |
|
|
| |
|
