Researchers develop VR goggles for mice to create immersive scenarios for brain research

Researchers at the prestigious Northwestern University have developed virtual reality (VR) goggles for mice to create immersive scenarios for brain research. "By more faithfully simulating natural environments, the researchers can more accurately and precisely study the neural circuitry that underlies behaviour," the researchers said in the study published on Friday (Dec 8).

"Compared to current state-of-the-art systems, which simply surround mice with computer or projection screens, the new goggles provide a leap in advancement," the study said. The new VR goggles could help researchers glean new insights into how the human brain adapts and reacts to virtual reality exposure.

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Professor Daniel Dombeck, the study's senior author said that researchers have been using VR systems for mice for the past 15 years, adding that till now, laboratories have used big computers or projection screens to surround an animal.

"For humans, this is like watching a TV in your living room. You still see your couch and your walls. There are cues around you, telling you that you aren’t inside the scene. Now think about putting on VR goggles, like Oculus Rift, that take up your full vision. You don’t see anything but the projected scene and a different scene is projected into each eye to create depth information. That’s been missing for mice,” he said.

Integrating VR into lab settings

The study said that although researchers observe animals in nature, it has been difficult to image patterns of real-time brain activity while animals engage with the real world. To solve this problem, researchers have integrated VR into laboratory settings.

"In these experimental setups, an animal uses a treadmill to navigate scenes, such as a virtual maze, projected onto surrounding screens," it said. Rather than allowing a mouse to run in a natural environment or physical maze, keeping the mouse in place on the treadmill allows researchers to use tools to view and map the brain as the rodent traverses a virtual space.

This would help researchers grasp the general principles of how activated neural circuits encode information during various behaviours. “VR basically reproduces real environments,” Professor Dombeck said.

"We’ve had a lot of success with this VR system, but it’s possible the animals aren’t as immersed as they would be in a real environment. It takes a lot of training just to get the mice to pay attention to the screens and ignore the lab around them,” he added.

What is iMRSIV?

Dombeck and his team createdcompact VR goggles for mice using custom-designed lenses and miniature organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays. The goggle is called Miniature Rodent Stereo Illumination VR (iMRSIV).

The study said that iMRSIV has two lenses and two screens — one for each side of the head to separately illuminate each eye for 3D vision. This system provides each eye with a 180-degree field of view that fully immerses the mouse and excludes the surrounding environment.

Unlike the VR goggles for humans, iMRSIV does not wrap around the mouse’s head. Instead, it is closely perched directly in front of the mouse’s face.