BehaviorAtlas Optomotor

Mouse Optomotor Analysis System

Leading OMR head-movement detection with AI optomotor tracking — quantifying spatial frequency and contrast sensitivity thresholds for vision and neuroscience research.

Product Features

Precise OMR head movement capture — AI-powered tracking with flexible visual stimulation.

AI · OMR

AI-powered Precise OMR Head Movement Capture

Top behavior camera captures head and body movement; AI analyzes grating synchronization to quantify visual acuity and contrast sensitivity.

Stimulation

Flexible Visual Stimulation Protocol

Customizable spatial frequency, contrast (0–1), opacity, grating texture (sine/square/sawtooth), and initial stimulus angle.

Environment

Six-sided Immersive Optomotor Environment

Surround displays with top and bottom mirrors deliver omnidirectional visual signals to elicit stable optomotor responses.

Platform

Dedicated Animal Platform

Elevated central platform for unrestrained mice receiving visual stimulation in natural posture for authentic data.

Architecture

Hardware, capture software, and analysis software — covering the full optomotor workflow.

Hardware

Mouse Optomotor Capture Device

Six-sided surround displays, top/bottom mirrors, behavior camera, and dedicated animal platform integrated for immersive optomotor stimulation and stable acquisition.

Capture Software

Mouse Optomotor Capture Software

Stimulus parameter setup, preview, video recording, and TTL marking — flexible configuration of spatial frequency, contrast, grating texture, and stimulus direction.

Analysis SoftwareIn Development

Mouse Optomotor Analysis Software

Automated analysis for optomotor experiment data — OMR head movement analysis, body keypoint tracking, result visualization, and statistical report export.

Analysis software coming soon

Workflow

Dark adaptation and placement, parameter config, acquisition and stimulation — AI tracks OMR head movement to output visual thresholds.

Step 1：Dark Adaptation & Placement

After dark adaptation, place mouse on central platform in optomotor apparatus for free movement before experiment.

Dark adaptation duration per experimental protocol
Place animal after health check approval
Head freely mobile, no fixation required

Step 2：Grating Parameter Setup

Create a grating stimulus event in capture software — configure spatial frequency, contrast, opacity, grating texture, direction, and moving speed, then lock the gradient protocol after preview.

Adjustable spatial frequency (cpd), contrast (0–1), and grating texture
Stimulus direction, moving speed, duration, and refresh interval
Lock protocol after full-screen preview confirmation

Step 3：Top Camera Acquisition

OMR Head Movement

Top behavior camera records head and body movement synchronized with grating stimulus timeline.

Full-field coverage of experiment area
Continuous head and body movement video recording
Synchronized marking with stimulus parameters

Step 4：Visual Stimulation & Acquisition

Visual stimulation begins in preset sequence on six-sided surround displays — gratings presented in configured temporal order, direction, and duration.

Six-sided immersive optomotor environment
Alternating stimulus direction cycles
TTL peripheral synchronized triggering

Step 5：AI Head Movement Tracking

OMR Head Movement

AI algorithms analyze head pose to determine whether head movement tracks the rotating grating.

Head: tracking determined by ear-center and nose-tip keypoints
Automatic distinction of non-specific head movement interference
Head movement data aligned with stimulus timeline

Step 6：Data Analysis & Visualization

Aggregate head movement tracking trajectories — AI auto-determines tracking status, outputs spatial frequency and contrast sensitivity threshold reports.

Synchronized head movement trajectory recording
Automatic tracking/non-tracking state determination
Export OMR results, body keypoint tracking data, and statistical charts

Key Metrics

Analysis software organizes results into a clear data structure — stimulus parameters, body movement trajectories, frame-level kinematics, and OMR tracking events for statistics and visualization.

Hierarchical data output — stimulus, trajectories, kinematics, and OMR events

├──/stimuli/

Stimulus trials

├──Trial info

Parameters

Start/end frames, duration, spatial frequency, moving speed, and stimulus direction for each trial

└──Trial data

Full records

Measured values for all stimulus trials — one complete row per trial

├──/2Dcoordinates/

Body keypoints

├──Keypoint names

4 body parts

Nose, left ear, right ear, and back

├──Video frame rate

Recording

Frames per second of the top behavior camera video

└──Coordinate trajectories

Per-frame position

Smoothed XY position of each keypoint per frame for head and body movement visualization

├──/frameLevel_parameter/

Frame-level kinematics

├──Parameter names

3 metrics

Viewing center distance, head length, and body-to-motion angle

└──Parameter values

Per-frame output

Kinematic parameter values for each video frame

└──/events/

OMR tracking events

├──Event metrics

6 statistics

Start/end frames, duration in frames, head-length variability, grating parallelism, mean movement velocity, and more

└──Event data

Detection results

Complete statistics for each detected OMR head-tracking event

Device Integration

The optomotor system integrates with the freely-moving mouse eye-tracking system — synchronized OMR and pupil data in one setup, with cable routing and multimodal recording support.

Learn about Eye-tracking Research

Synchronized with the freely-moving mouse head-mounted eye-tracking unit — optomotor stimulation and pupil recording on a shared timeline
Cable routing and mounting positions reserved for head-mounted eye-tracking modules alongside the top behavior camera
Capture software supports TTL peripheral sync — aligning optomotor stimulation, head/body video, and eye-tracking data
Extensible to optomotor + eye-tracking multimodal analysis for combined visual function and pupil response assessment

Collaboration Cases

Optomotor + Eye Tracking Integration

Combined OMR head tracking and OKR eye tracking — AI distinguishes tracking vs. non-tracking states

OMR Head Tracking

Non-invasive — no surgery required; a top behavior camera captures video

AI Recognition Results

Accurate grating-tracking detection from head movement

AI Pipeline

A pose estimation model tracks the midpoint between ear centers and the nose tip as the Viewing Center reference; post-processing determines whether head movement is synchronized with the grating — an OMR event.

OKR Eye Tracking

An ETU connector is implanted on the mouse skull; an eye-tracking camera is connected during experiments to capture video

AI Recognition Results

Accurate grating-tracking detection from eye movement

AI Pipeline

Precisely identifies the pupil region, uses attention to extract core saccade features, and combines traditional features (amplitude, velocity, etc.) to detect OKR events — distinguishing grating tracking from noise with significantly improved accuracy.

Application Cases

Widely used in visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and neurodegenerative vision impairment research.

Effects of rod photoreceptor Syt1/Syt7 knockout on mouse optomotor response

Compared visual behavior in C57 mice and rod photoreceptor Syt1 and/or Syt7 knockout mice — assessed effects of synaptic protein loss on optomotor response.

Detection Metrics: Spatial frequency threshold · contrast sensitivity
Key Findings: Syt1/Syt7 knockout significantly impaired low spatial frequency (0.05 cpd) grating tracking
Authors: Barta CL, Thoreson WB

IBRO Neurosci Rep. 20242024

Effects of rod photoreceptor Syt1/Syt7 knockout on mouse optomotor response

Effects of Brn3b knockout on mouse OKR/OMR responses

Compared Brn3b wild-type and knockout mice in head-fixed OKR and freely-moving OMR assays.

Detection Metrics: OKR/OMR tracking frequency · visual acuity threshold
Key Findings: WT mice: OKR ~12 phases/min, OMR ~6 phases/min; visual acuity threshold 0.375–0.4 cycle/°
Authors: Kretschmer F et al.

J Neurophysiol. 20172017