Segura, FranciscoArines Piferrer, JustoSánchez Cano, AnaPerdices, LorenaOrduna Hospital, ElviraFuentes Broto, LorenaPinilla, Isabel2018-10-312018-10-312018-07-03Segura, F., Arines, J., Sánchez-Cano, A., Perdices, L., Orduna-Hospital, E., Fuentes-Broto, L., & Pinilla, I. (2018). Development of optokinetic tracking software for objective evaluation of visual function in rodents. Scientific Reports, 8(1). doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-28394-xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10347/17659The aim of this study was to develop software that performs the optokinetic tracking assessment without the involvement of experimenters to increase the objectivity of the test. To check the effectiveness of the software, several videos were analyzed and the results were compared to those produced by two experimenters. Videos consisted of visual acuity and contrast sensitivity tests on normal animals and pigmented P23H rats (animal model of retinitis pigmentosa). Our software showed a reasonably high success rate: in approximately 78% of the cases, both the software program and the experimenters were in agreement, including the direction of rotation. The software detected 7% false positive cases, 10% false negative cases, and it was wrong in 5% of the cases. Decrease in visual function with age in pigmented P23H rats was observed from the first time interval, although minimum thresholds were found in visual parameters at advanced ages. We developed simple software based on current functions included in the Matlab image processing toolbox that was able to recognize, with a reasonably high percentage of success, the subtle head movements of the rodent produced when visual perception of the optokinetic optotype occurseng© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Atribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Smooth pursuitVestibuloocular reflexjournal article10.1038/s41598-018-28394-x2045-2322open access