The Dome: A virtual reality apparatus for freely locomoting rodents

Madhav, Manu S.; Jayakumar, Ravikrishnan P.; Lashkari, Shahin G.; Savelli, Francesco; Blair, Hugh T.; Knierim, James; Cowan, Noah J.

doi:10.1016/j.jneumeth.2021.109336

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To present visual landmarks and optic flow cues to the rat, we used our custom planetarium-like virtual reality apparatus, the Dome (see 28 , for details on the design and construction). Briefly, rats locomoted near the outer periphery of an annular table (152.4-cm outer diameter, 45.7-cm inner diameter) centred within the dome.…”

Section: Dome Apparatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Multiple independent programs, called nodes, performed each of these tasks and communicated to a master node running on Computer #1 and to each other through a software framework called Robot Operating System (ROS) 50 . Details on the hardware and software integration and experimental control are available in 28 .…”

Section: Experimental Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(c) Real-time decoding flowchart. Neural data from each tetrode and rat position data from the camera are acquired (see 28 , for hardware details). Incoming spike times, as detected by Neuralynx spike detection parameters, and positions are added to a temporal buffer.…”

Section: Code Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used a unique, immersive planetarium-style virtual reality (VR) apparatus (the "Dome" 28 ; Fig. 1a) to provide pure optic flow input to a running rat while recording hippocampal place cells.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Closed-loop control and recalibration of place cells by optic flow

Madhav

Jayakumar

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding the interplay between sensory input, endogenous neural dynamics, and behavioral output is key toward understanding the principles of neural computation. Hippocampal place cells are an ideal system to investigate this closed-loop interaction, as they are influenced by both self-motion (idiothetic) signals and by external sensory landmarks as an animal navigates its environment. To continuously update a position signal on an internal "cognitive map", the hippocampal system integrates self-motion signals over time. In the absence of stable, external landmarks, however, these spatial correlates of neuronal activity can quickly accumulate error and cause the internal representation of position or direction to drift relative to the external environment. We have previously demonstrated that, in addition to their known roles in preventing and/or correcting path-integration error, external landmarks can be used as a putative teaching signal to recalibrate the gain of the path integration system. However, it remains unclear whether idiothetic cues, such as optic flow, exert sufficient influence on the cognitive map to enable recalibration of path integration, or if instead an unambiguous allocentric frame of reference, anchored by polarizing landmark information, is essential for path integration recalibration. Here, we use principles of control theory to demonstrate systematic control of place fields by pure optic flow information in freely moving animals by using a neurally closed-loop virtual reality system that adjusts optic flow speed as a function of real-time decoding of the hippocampal spatial map. Using this "cognitive clamp", we show that we can not only bring the updating of the map under control of the optic flow cues but we can also elicit recalibration of path integration. This finding demonstrates that the brain continuously rebalances the influence of conflicting idiothetic cues to fine-tune the neural dynamics of path integration, and that this recalibration process does not require a top-down, unambiguous position signal from landmarks.

show abstract

Section: Dome Apparatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Experimental Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Code Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Closed-loop control and recalibration of place cells by optic flow

Madhav

Jayakumar

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In VR setups that do not restrict body rotations and in which vestibular information about rotational movements is available to the animal, normal place-selective firing has been reported (Aronov and Tank, 2014 ; Chen et al, 2018 ; Haas et al, 2019 ). Freely-moving VRs may even better solve this problem (Del Grosso et al, 2017 ; Kaupert et al, 2017 ; Stowers et al, 2017 ; Madhav et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Why Using Vr? and Why For Naturalistic Neuroscience?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Naturalistic neuroscience and virtual reality

Thurley

2022

Front. Syst. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Virtual reality (VR) is one of the techniques that became particularly popular in neuroscience over the past few decades. VR experiments feature a closed-loop between sensory stimulation and behavior. Participants interact with the stimuli and not just passively perceive them. Several senses can be stimulated at once, large-scale environments can be simulated as well as social interactions. All of this makes VR experiences more natural than those in traditional lab paradigms. Compared to the situation in field research, a VR simulation is highly controllable and reproducible, as required of a laboratory technique used in the search for neural correlates of perception and behavior. VR is therefore considered a middle ground between ecological validity and experimental control. In this review, I explore the potential of VR in eliciting naturalistic perception and behavior in humans and non-human animals. In this context, I give an overview of recent virtual reality approaches used in neuroscientific research.

show abstract