The objectives of this Human Brain Project application are to develop Web-based protocols and standards that will enhance basic sleep research. These objectives will be realized by the generation of Web-based Standardized Sleep Protocols for behavioral, electrophysiological, microdialysis, neuroanatomical and molecular biological data. These Protocols will encompass the storage, curation, analysis and retrieval of information in the fields of basic sleep research. Although this application is described on the basis of collaborative research, the tools that will be developed will be of equal value to individual researchers who will be able to use the hypertext, platform-independent attributes of the Web to collect, view, manipulate, store and retrieve their own data. There are two integrated components that comprise this proposal: a neuroscience research component and a neuroinformatics research component. The neuroscience research component will address the role of hypocretin in maintaining sleep and waking states and the regulation of physiological processes during these behavioral states. The basic hypothesis that we will be examining is that hypocretin exerts dual functions that are state-dependent, i.e., hypocretin acts at various levels of the neuraxis not only to promote wakefulness and patterns of motor activation that occur during this state, but that it also functions to sustain REM sleep and its accompanying pattern of motor inhibition. The neuroinformatics research component is based upon the hypothesis that the development of protocols and standards for the communication of online data will be of enormous value in enhancing sleep and sleep-related research and provide a foundation for collaborative endeavors. Our objective is to develop protocols and standards that will allow the complex, interdisciplinary data that are generated by basic sleep (and circadian rhythm) research to be input, stored, retrieved, analyzed and graphed in a secure environment with appropriate back-up and search and retrieval capabilities. The software that we will generate will provide a foundation for the development of structural, functional, integrative and analytical models, simulations, and data mining studies that will be able to be undertaken based upon """"""""protocol-wrapped"""""""" standardized procedures. The software will be generalizable, scalable, extendable and interoperable, thus assuring that it will be available to enhance research and promote new developments in basic sleep and sleep disorders research. It will also provide an infrastructure for the development of interactions and linkages between basic and clinical areas of investigation.
