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Independent visual threshold measurements in the two eyes of freely moving rats and mice using a virtual-reality optokinetic system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2005

R.M. DOUGLAS ,
N.M. ALAM ,
B.D. SILVER ,
T.J. MCGILL ,
W.W. TSCHETTER  and
G.T. PRUSKY
R.M. DOUGLAS
Affiliation:
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, The University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
N.M. ALAM
Affiliation:
Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, The University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
B.D. SILVER
Affiliation:
Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, The University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
T.J. MCGILL
Affiliation:
Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, The University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
W.W. TSCHETTER
Affiliation:
Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, The University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
G.T. PRUSKY
Affiliation:
Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, The University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
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Abstract

Slow horizontal head and body rotation occurs in mice and rats when the visual field is rotated around them, and these optomotor movements can be produced reliably in a virtual-reality system. If one eye is closed, only motion in the temporal-to-nasal direction for the contralateral eye evokes the tracking response. When the maximal spatial frequency capable of driving the response (“acuity”) was measured under monocular and binocular viewing conditions, the monocular acuity was identical to the binocular acuity measured with the same rotation direction. Thus, the visual capabilities of each eye can be measured under binocular conditions simply by changing the direction of rotation. Lesions of the visual cortex had no effect on the acuities measured with the virtual optokinetic system, whereas perceptual thresholds obtained previously with the Visual Water Task are. The optokinetic acuities were also consistently lower than acuity estimates from the Visual Water Task, but contrast sensitivities were the same or better. These data show that head-tracking in a virtual optokinetic drum is driven by subcortical, lower frequency, and contralateral pathways.

Keywords

OptomotorAcuityContrast sensitivityAccessory optic systemVisual cortex
Type
Research Article
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 22 , Issue 5 , September 2005 , pp. 677 - 684
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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