PsychoGenics’ Preclinical EEG Services

PsychoGenics provides a full range of electroencephalography (EEG) techniques and services. We perform studies for sleep/wake, seizure/epilepsy, evoked potential, and pharmacoEEG. We guide the decisions for electrode derivations (where the EEG signals arise from) based on client needs. We can add depth electrodes for recording local field potentials from targeted brain regions in the parenchyma. We perform both acute and longitudinal designs. The breath of study-types offers great opportunities for finding translation electrophysiological biomarkers for your therapeutic intervention and help guide clinical trials.
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Deep Electrophysiological Knowledge

Our team’s deep knowledge of the EEG allows us to understand the nuances of the signal to evaluate novelty and remove artifacts. The inherent electrophysiological properties of EEG signals in rodents and humans are translational, allowing for objective data to evaluate novel therapies. However, EEG patterns vary greatly across sleep/wake cycles and across the circadian phase. While the tools and methodologies for collecting EEG signals may be common, PsychoGenics’ seasoned scientists possess the unique depth of understanding required to accurately execute, analyze, and draw interpretations. The effects on neural oscillations and EEG patterns by pharmacological agents or genetic changes can be greatly influenced by sleep/wake cycles and/or the circadian phase. Knowledge and understanding of these variations are critical for interpreting the effects of novel treatments. The sensitive nature of the EEG requires a clear understanding of what is physiological and what is not physiological, such as movement artifact or electrical noise. These understandings are vital for accurate interpretation of results.

Breadth of Preclinical EEG Services

PsychoGenics’ scientists possess unsurpassed surgical skills, enabling precise implementation of recording electrodes (surface EEG electrodes and indwelling LFP electrodes). Combined with our analytical expertise and commitment to customization, we excel at identifying EEG biomarkers and isolating aberrant activity following the administration of your therapeutic and in rodent models of disease. PsychoGenics offers a full suite of EEG services for your study needs.

Our suite of preclinical EEG research services include:

  • Auditory-Evoked Potentials
  • Sleep/Wake Analyses
  • Pharmaco-EEG
  • Seizure Analyses
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Power Analysis
  • Local Field Potential
  • Novel Model Characterization
  • Telemetry
  • Tethered
  • Piezoelectric

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Study Types

Our scientists have extensive experience conducting and analyzing a broad range of translational EEG studies to support the progress of your program.

Auditory Evoked Potentials
Mismatch negativity (MMN) measures the pre-attentional detection of auditory novelty. MMN is elicited with an “auditory oddball” test, in which deviant tones are randomly presented with 10% probability alongside standard auditory tones (90%). MMN is a validated, objective measure of central auditory processing used as a key clinical biomarker in schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

The Auditory Steady State Response (ASSR) evaluates the ability of the brain to entrain to the frequency and/or phase of a periodic auditory stimulus. It is used to evaluate normal brain functioning or the presence of disturbances of neural synchrony and oscillations observed in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders.

CHIRP: A “chirp” stimulus that increases linearly in frequency across the stimulus presentation period enables the study of neural synchronization across a broad range of input frequencies in a short amount of time.

Epilepsy & Seizure Disorders
PsychoGenics offers epilepsy and seizure studies that utilize both EEG and behavioral seizure identification. With custom electrode configurations, ECoG, and local field potential (LFP) recordings from cortical and subcortical regions, we can record up to 64 rats or mice simultaneously. We identify the full range of aberrant hyper synchronous network activity from spiking and absent-like seizures (such as spike and wave activity) through full global seizures.

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Sleep EEG
We conduct preclinical pharmaco-EEG studies to help determine the effects of your compound on brain activity, polysomnographic EEG, and sleep/wake patterns. Assessing sleep/wake patterns not only provides important insights on the effects of your compound on behavioral state, it allows for EEG spectral power analyses to be performed within each state (wake, NREM, and REM) which provides a much deeper insight into potential clinical EEG biomarkers. The EEG is a readout of network activity affecting cortical synaptic neurotransmitter release.

With our scalable tethered or telemetric (wireless) platforms, we offer custom electrode configurations for EEG and LFP from cortical and subcortical regions, as well as muscle electromyography (EMG).

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eCube®
eCube™ is a novel EEG-based drug discovery platform for determining the effects of your compound on neural oscillatory activity. This advanced platform offers integrated data collection of actigraphy and quantitative EEG (q-EEG) from four separate cortical areas, before and after drug administration.

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