Evaluation of critical flicker-fusion frequency measurement methods using a touchscreen-based visual temporal discrimination task in the behaving mouse

Yuichiro Nomura; Shohei Ikuta; Satoshi Yokota; Junpei Mita; Mami Oikawa; Hiroki Matsushima; Akira Amano; Kazuhiro Shimonomura; Yasuhiro Seya; Chieko Koike

doi:10.1016/j.neures.2018.12.001

Evaluation of critical flicker-fusion frequency measurement methods using a touchscreen-based visual temporal discrimination task in the behaving mouse

Neurosci Res. 2019 Nov:148:28-33. doi: 10.1016/j.neures.2018.12.001. Epub 2018 Dec 5.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Systems Neuroscience and Developmental Biology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan.
² Laboratory for Systems Neuroscience and Developmental Biology, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan.
³ Laboratory for Systems Neuroscience and Developmental Biology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan; Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan.
⁴ Department of Bioinformatics, College of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan; Center for Systems Vision Science, Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan.
⁵ Department of Robotics, College of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan; Center for Systems Vision Science, Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan.
⁶ Center for Systems Vision Science, Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan; Faculty of Human Informatics, Aichi Shukutoku University, Aichi, 480-1197, Japan.
⁷ Laboratory for Systems Neuroscience and Developmental Biology, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan; Laboratory for Systems Neuroscience and Developmental Biology, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan; Center for Systems Vision Science, Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan. Electronic address: koike@fc.ritsumei.ac.jp.

PMID: 30529110
DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2018.12.001

Abstract

The critical flicker-fusion frequency (CFF), defined as the frequency at which a flickering light is indistinguishable from a continuous light, is a useful measure of visual temporal resolution. The mouse CFF has been studied by electrophysiological approaches such as recordings of the electroretinogram (ERG) and the visually evoked potential (VEP), but it has not been measured behaviorally. Here we estimated the mouse CFF by using a touchscreen based operant system. The test with ascending series of frequencies and that with randomized frequencies resulted in about 17 and 14 Hz, respectively, as the frequency which could not be distinguished from steady lights. Since the ascending method of limits tend to overestimate the threshold than the descending method, we estimated the mouse CFF to be about 14 Hz. Our results highlight usefulness of the operant conditioning method in measurement of the mouse visual temporal resolution.

Keywords: Critical flicker-fusion frequency; Operant behavior; Touchscreen.

MeSH terms

Animals
Conditioning, Operant
Discrimination, Psychological*
Evoked Potentials, Visual
Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Visual Perception*