Value of virtual operating system for visual behavioral assessment in mice models of visual disease

Visual behaviorally operant method is one of the main detections for identifying animal models of visual diseases, which is mainly through the optomotor response (OMR) and optokinetic reflex (OKR) stimulated by the virtual operating system (VOS). The automated VOS was commonly used as a powerful tool to control the contrast sensitivity and measure the spatial frequency of the monitoring device by adjusting parameters such as grating fringe width, rotation velocity and light intensity, and also to track the OKR, OMR, and the combined movement of OKR and OMR.Both the optimized measuring methods and evaluation indicators including the search coils, the corneal labeling, OMR-arena system, the OMR index, the staircase protocol tests and the improved stimuli from two-dimensional to three-dimensional helped to ensure the validity of test data.Moreover, the introduction of image recognition technology benefited in extracting the body and head contours of mice.Computer algorithms such as deep learning were also applied to analyze and process the visual behavior of diseased mice, which promoted sensitivity, shortened testing time, reduced detection errors and improved data accuracy.For all the factors mentioned, the VOS could be used as an effective research tool for glaucoma, cataract, retinopathy, hereditary eye disease, optic nerve degeneration and others.This article reviewed the value of VOS for visual behavioral assessment in mice models of visual disease from the visual detection methods and assessment indicators.

Models, animal; Vision, ocular; Mice; Virtual operating system; Visual function; Visual behavior