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iUJU..* •3 o o Research Project Appl ication - Pfeiffer - w page 2 0, Quantitative studies of the EEC in animals and man to determine stimulant or depressant effects.' E. Annual conference on the neuro-biology of psychoses. Er Proposals A, 8, and C are a continuation of the/kork now in progress which is familiar to the officers of The from our annual and semi- annual reports. Under C th^'source of human volunteers wi 1 1 be the 100 reformatory inmates (ages 18 to 28) whobre stationed on the grounds of the Institute. If 16 volunteers, aged 21 to 28,- are not obtained frcm this group for a weekly session of drug testing, we will have one session of eight subjects at the institute and one session at the New"-'Jersey' State Prison in Trenton. ‘^Commissioner 8rafnberg has given his permission. Under £ we now have perfected and plan to use at the New Jersey Laboratory a quantitative integrator for drug studies in both man and animals. Adult unanesthetized, trained animals are used. Under anesthesia small gold- plated wood screws are used as dural electrodes. These are lightly engaged in the calvarium and held firmly in place with methacrylate with the permanent lead . attached. The recording leads are bi^pbiar from the left and right frontoparietal lobes of the brain. The animals are in a sound attenuating box and sit quietly for the entire 1 to 2 hour session after a few training periods. A CrohocW integrator is attached to one lead. This device rectifies the brain waves and by a chopping process, counts the area under the rectified curve. A . signal is made at a pre-set degree of sensitivity. The number of signals per unit time is a measure of the degree of electrical activity or ."electrogenesis. 11 The number of pulses or signals is directly correlatable^wi thT the area under the curve. The constancy of the electrogenes is with elapsed time can be calculated and treated by the usual statistical methods. In this type of analysis, periods as long as five minutes can be used as a baseline or control and thus transient artefacts are eliminated. The action of drugs is usual ly measured at ] -5 minute intervals after intravenous injection and the drug action is expressed as change in percentage electrogenesis from the control preinjection period. Arousal or stimulant drug effects are recorded as a decrease while sleep (sine yvaves) produce an increase in electrogenesis. E. Annual conference on neurobiology of psychoses. Most previous conferences of this type have been poorly planned, and the group has been too large and unwieldy. Money spent on verbatim recording and publishing is wasted, end this' process further inhibits the participants. The participants will be limited to 12 or 15» The record wiil.be in the form of the individual’s own notes and the notes of a scienti fical Jy trained secretary. The summarizing secretary will change with each three-hour session. In a two-day conference we would have five sessions of three hours each. t ^ The coo fc r ence^^ou M, the with a biological approach to mental disease would be' invited. The ^ various basic disciplines would be represented. Some of the participants might be L