MouseGoggles: an immersive virtual reality headset for mouse neuroscience and behavior.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39668209.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41592-024-02540-y and PMC identifier 11810773.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Small-animal virtual reality (VR) systems have become invaluable tools in neuroscience for studying complex behavior during head-fixed neural recording, but they lag behind commercial human VR systems in terms of miniaturization, immersivity and advanced features such as eye tracking. Here we present MouseGoggles, a miniature VR headset for head-fixed mice that delivers independent, binocular visual stimulation over a wide field of view while enabling eye tracking and pupillometry in VR. Neural recordings in the visual cortex validate the quality of image presentation, while hippocampal recordings, associative reward learning and innate fear responses to virtual looming stimuli demonstrate an immersive VR experience. Our open-source system's simplicity and compact size will enable the broader adoption of VR methods in neuroscience.
Medical subject headings
- Virtual Reality
- Neurosciences
- Behavior, Animal