A New Method for Continuous, Long-Term Polysomnographic Recording of Neonatal Rats

Many findings suggest that in altricial mammals neonatal REM sleep has developmental functions. However, investigations of these developmental functions has been hampered by technical limitations of the conventional polysomnographic (PSG) recording technique. One limitation is that continuous (24 hour/day), long-term (weeks) PSG recordings have not been achieved. A second limitation is that the metal screw electrodes and head plugs cemented to the skull cannot be removed to allow the neonate to mature into adulthood. As a result of these limitations, the relationship between neonatal sleep/wake variables and adult variables has not been studied. Also the effects of polysomnographically controlled neonatal REM sleep deprivation on adult variables have not been studied. The present work describes a new technique called the soft head plug (SH) method for continuous, long-term PSG recording.