Att 1- Purchase Description.pdf

Version 11-30-2016-1 FAR Part 11—Describing Agency Needs

PURCHASE DESCRIPTION

1. Statement of Need and Purpose: The Unit on Computational Decision Neuroscience (UCDN) at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is a new lab at NIMH focusing on characterizing factors that affect decision-making in mental disorders such as mood disorders, substance use, and chronic pain. It is part of the Emotion and Development Branch (EDB). Substantial amount of CDNU research will involve eliciting negative valence states in healthy volunteers as well as in clinical populations and characterizing how these states may affect decision-making. These negative valence states include negative emotion and pain. We are designing a number of tasks for this purpose which are conducted on healthy and clinical populations of different age groups. Precise thermal pain stimulation will be central to many of our behavioral studies and with the ability of combining these paradigms with simultaneous neural and physiological recordings. To this end, we would like to request additional thermodes for our Medoc TSA2 thermal stimulation device.

2. Background Information and Objective:

The Unit on Computational Decision Neuroscience (UCDN) at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) conducts research on state-dependent effects on decision-making. One of the central areas of focus of this laboratory’s research program is the study of the mechanisms behind the effect that negative emotional valence states and pain have on decision-making behavior in individuals with and without mental disorders.

This research requires very precise control of stimulus features. Pain must be manipulated in a precise and reliable way that creates emotions that are both genuine and safe. Medoc Advanced Medical Systems (through Compass Medical Technologies, Inc) is the gold-standard tool for psychophysics research on pain. The Medoc devices possess the precise level of control needed to generate such manipulations, which has led the requested device to emerge as a standard in the field.

The UCDN wishes to procure additional thermodes for use with our Medoc TSA2 device to generate thermal pain and evaluate how decision-making is affected. We would like to request purchasing four (4) unique thermode parts for generating thermal pain stimulation to examine decision-making in healthy volunteers and clinical populations in Building 10. Our research goal is to characterize behavioral, neural, and computational mechanisms that lead to changes in valuation after pain induction. A key requirement for our research is the pain stimulation rate must be fast enough to allow recording of evoked neural responses while using neurophysiological or neuroimaging techniques.

Medoc’s Contact Heat Evoked Potentials (CHEPS) TSA2 systems allows for a rate of up to 13°C per second that are unachievable with other stimulation models. It is compatible with both EEG and fMRI experiments designed to record evoked neural responses.

Reliable use and data collection requires availability of at least two (2) dedicated MRI-compatible Medoc thermodes should one malfunction or become damaged (fMRI TSA2 CHEPS Thermode and micro-filtering cabling). Similarly, reliable use for behavioral data collection necessitates additional, auxiliary thermodes be available should the primary

Version 11-30-2016-1 FAR Part 11—Describing Agency Needs malfunction or become damaged (Standard TSA2 16x16mm Thermode, Standard TSA2 30x30mm Thermode, Standard TSA2 CHEPS Thermode). Finally, with the standard 16x16mm and 30x30mm models, a second similarly sized thermode allows heat application to two sites simultaneously.

3. Generic Name of Product:

Contact Heat Evoked Potentials Thermosensory Stimulator Thermodes

4. Purchase Description:

NIMH requires the following brand name or equal items:

Quantity Description – Brand name or Equal 1 AS00177 - Standard TSA2 16x16mm Thermode 1 AS00176 - Standard TSA2 30x30mm Thermode 1 AS00420 - Standard TSA2 CHEPS Thermode 1 AS00421- fMRI TSA2 CHEPS Thermode + micro-filter cabling 1 Shipping

5. Salient characteristics:

• Items must provide delivery of a very precise temperature (within a resolution of

0.5 degrees Celsius) for a very specific time frame (2-4 seconds).

• UCDN requires a thermode of size 30x30 millimeters in diameter and a thermode of size 16x16 millimeters in diameter, involving heating and cooling from 0 to 54 degrees centigrade at a rate of approximately 40 degrees per second change; different features could generate different pain sensations.

• 3-year parts & labor warranty.

• These thermodes must be fully compatible with the pre-existing Medoc TSA2 device.

6. Delivery Date:

Thirty days after the award of the contract.

Ship to:

National Institute of Mental Health, Attn: NIMH Property Management Team 10 CENTER DR., Bldg. 10 RM 3D51A

BETHESDA, MD 20892

7. Period of Performance:

The warranty is three years for parts and labor. It is anticipated these thermodes should perform for five to ten years.