recording eye movements of the optokinetic reflex (okr)

Evaluating Optokinetic Reflex Responses in Mice: A New High-Precision Protocol

In response to visual stimuli in the environment, our eyes move to shift our gaze, stabilize retinal images, track moving targets, or align the foveae of two eyes with targets located at different distances from the observer, which are vital to proper vision1,2. Oculomotor behaviors have been widely used as attractive models of sensorimotor integration to understand the neural circuits in health and disease, at least partly because of the simplicity of the oculomotor system3. Controlled by three pairs of extraocular muscles, the eye rotates in the socket primarily around three corresponding axes: elevation and depression along the transverse axis, adduction and abduction along the vertical axis, and intorsion and extorsion along the anteroposterior axis1,2. Such a simple system allows researchers to evaluate the oculomotor behaviors of mice easily and accurately in a lab environment.
One prime oculomotor behavior is the optokinetic reflex (OKR). This involuntary eye movement is triggered by slow drifts or slips of images on the retina and serves to stabilize retinal images as an animal&#39;s head or its surroundings move2,4. The OKR, as a behavioral paradigm, is interesting to researchers for several reasons. First, it can be stimulated reliably and quantified accurately5,6. Second, the procedures of quantifying this behavior are relatively simple and standardized and can be applied to evaluate the visual functions of a large cohort of animals7. Third, this innate behavior is highly plastic5,8,9. Its amplitude can be potentiated when repetitive retinal slips occur for a long time5,8,9, or when its working partner vestibular ocular reflex (VOR), another mechanism of stabilizing retinal images triggered by vestibular input2, is impaired5. These experimental paradigms of OKR potentiation empower researchers to unveil the circuit basis underlying oculomotor learning.
Two non-invasive methods have primarily been used to evaluate the OKR in previous studies: (1) video-oculography combined with a physical drum7,10,11,12,13 or (2) arbitrary determination of head turns combined with a virtual drum6,14,15,16. Although their applications have made fruitful discoveries in understanding the molecular and circuit mechanisms of oculomotor plasticity, these two methods each have some drawbacks which limit their powers in quantitatively examining the properties of the OKR. First, physical drums, with printed patterns of black and white stripes or dots, do not allow easy and quick changes of visual patterns, which largely restricts the measurement of the dependence of the OKR on certain visual features, such as spatial frequency, direction, and contrast of moving gratings8,17. Instead, tests of the selectivity of the OKR to these visual features can benefit from computerized visual stimulation, in which visual features can be conveniently modified from trial to trial. In this way, researchers can systematically examine the OKR behavior in the multi-dimensional visual parameter space. Moreover, the second method of the OKR assay reports only the thresholds of visual parameters that trigger discernible OKRs, but not the amplitudes of eye or head movements6, 14,15,16. The lack of quantitative power thus prevents analyzing the shape of tuning curves and the preferred visual features, or detecting subtle differences between individual mice in normal and pathological conditions. To overcome the above limitations, video-oculography and computerized virtual visual stimulation had been combined to assay the OKR behavior in recent studies5,17,18,19,20. However, these previously published studies did not provide enough technical details or step-by-step instructions, and consequently it is still challenging for researchers to establish such an OKR test for their own research.
Here, we present a protocol to precisely quantify the visual feature selectivity of OKR behavior under photopic or scotopic conditions with the combination of video-oculography and computerized virtual visual stimulation. Mice are head-fixed to avoid the eye movement evoked by vestibular stimulation. A high-speed camera is used to record the ocular movements from mice viewing moving gratings with changing visual parameters. The physical size of the eyeballs of individual mice is calibrated to ensure the accuracy of deriving the angle of eye movements21. This quantitative method allows comparing OKR behavior between animals of different ages or genetic backgrounds, or monitoring its change caused by pharmacological treatments or visual-motor learning.

Author Spotlight: An Accurate and Quantitative Approach to Study Visual Feature Selectivity of the Optokinetic Reflex in Mice 

Quantification of Visual Feature Selectivity of the Optokinetic Reflex in Mice

We're interested in the capacity of retinal system in health and disease mouse model. Currently, we are using optokinetic reflex or OKR insured, which is our involuntary eye movement that serves to stabilize retinal images to understand how the retinal system contributes to the adaptive plasticity in retinal innate behaviors. OKR model studies have advanced our understanding of innate behavior plasticity by demonstrating that prolonged retinal stimulation or impaired by similar ocular reflex can increase the behavior amplitude.And by investigating the underlying molecular synaptic and secretory mechanisms. We combined video oculargraphy and computerized virtual visual stimulation to precisely quantify the OKR behavior invokes by truncating with freely changing parameters. This procedure is relatively simple and can be standardized to accommodate large scale studies.Our protocol accurately analyzes to include shapes and prefer visual features, detects subtle differences in normal and pathological conditions, and also can monitor changes in OKR due to pharmacological treatments or visual motor learning. The high precision and the quantitative power make it possible to compare repetitive OKR measurements of the same eyes in longitudinal studies and their different pharmacological treatments or under neurosurpreterations. It also provides opportunities to study the neurosurpres and the circuit mechanisms of OKR plasticity.

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Recording Eye Movements of the Optokinetic Reflex OKR at JoVE.com

Recording Eye Movements of the Optokinetic Reflex (OKR)  

After fixing the head of the mouse in the rig and calibrating the eye movements, lock the camera arm at the central position. Run the visual stimulation and eye tracking software. For photopic OKR measurement, ensure the drum grating oscillates horizontally with a sinusoidal trajectory.For scotopic OKR, to achieve scotopic visual stimulation, cover the screen of each monitor with a customized filter made of five layers of 1.2 neutral density film, and turn the room light off. Apply one drop of pilocarpine solution to the right eye, and wait 15 minutes to shrink the pupil to a proper size for eye tracking under the scotopic condition. Ensure the drop stays on the eye and is not wiped away by the mouse.Afterward, rinse the right eye with saline to thoroughly wash away the pilocarpine solution. Finally, pull down the curtain to completely seal the enclosure, which prevents stray light from interfering with the scotopic vision. Run the visual stimulation and the eye tracking software.For scotopic OKR measurement, ensure the drum grating drifts at a constant velocity from left to right, the temporonasal direction about the left eye. The OKR gain varied with the values of spatial frequency, oscillation frequency, and the direction of movement grating. The spatial frequency tuning curve of the OKR behavior peaked at an intermediate spatial frequency of 0.16 cycles per degree.The oscillation frequency tuning curve monotonically declined as the oscillation frequency of the drum grating increased. The horizontal OKR could also be induced by gratings moving in different directions, but the strongest horizontal OKR behavior was elicited by the temporonasal motion. Following 45 minutes of continuous OKR stimulation, the amplitude of the OKR behavior was significantly potentiated.

recording-eye-movements-of-the-optokinetic-reflex-okr

Research

JoVE Journal

Neuroscience

218 Views.  University of Toronto Mississauga. Dopo aver fissato la testa del mouse nel rig e calibrato i movimenti oculari, bloccare il braccio della fotocamera in posizione centrale. Esegui il software di stimolazione visiva e tracciamento oculare. Per la misurazione fotopica dell'OKR, assicurarsi che il reticolo del tamburo oscilli orizzontalmente con una traiettoria sinusoidale.Per l'OKR scotopico, per ottenere una stimolazione visiva scotopica, coprire lo schermo di ciascun monitor con un filtro personalizzato composto da cinq...