2024年12月12日，《自然—方法学》杂志在线发表了美国科学家的一项最新研究成果。来自康奈尔大学的Matthew Isaacson等研究人员开发出一种用于小鼠神经科学和行为研究的沉浸式虚拟现实头盔。

研究人员介绍了MouseGoggles，一款用于头部固定小鼠的微型虚拟现实（VR）头盔，可提供独立的双眼视觉刺激，视野广泛，同时支持在VR环境中的眼动追踪和瞳孔测量。

视觉皮层中的神经记录验证了图像呈现的质量，而海马的记录、联想奖励学习以及对虚拟逼近刺激的天生恐惧反应则展示了沉浸式的VR体验。该开源系统因其简单性和紧凑性，有望促进VR方法在神经科学中的更广泛应用。

据悉，小动物VR系统已成为神经科学中研究头部固定神经记录期间复杂行为的重要工具，但在小型化、沉浸感以及眼动追踪等高级功能方面，仍落后于商业化的人类VR系统。

附：英文原文

Title: MouseGoggles: an immersive virtual reality headset for mouse neuroscience and behavior

Author: Isaacson, Matthew, Chang, Hongyu, Berkowitz, Laura, Zirkel, Rick, Park, Yusol, Hu, Danyu, Ellwood, Ian, Schaffer, Chris B.

Issue&Volume: 2024-12-12

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.

DOI: 10.1038/s41592-024-02540-y

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-024-02540-y