Professional Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Cornell University (2025)
  • Master of Science, Cornell University (2023)
  • Bachelor of Science, S.U.N.Y. State University at Buffalo (2019)

Stanford Advisors

Contact

  • Academic
    rzirkel@stanford.edu
    University - Scholar Department: Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Position: Postdoctoral Scholar

Additional Info

All Publications

  • MouseGoggles: an immersive virtual reality headset for mouse neuroscience and behavior NATURE METHODS Isaacson, M., Chang, H., Berkowitz, L., Zirkel, R., Park, Y., Hu, D., Ellwood, I., Schaffer, C. B. 2025; 22 (2): 380-385

    Abstract

    Small-animal virtual reality (VR) systems have become invaluable tools in neuroscience for studying complex behavior during head-fixed neural recording, but they lag behind commercial human VR systems in terms of miniaturization, immersivity and advanced features such as eye tracking. Here we present MouseGoggles, a miniature VR headset for head-fixed mice that delivers independent, binocular visual stimulation over a wide field of view while enabling eye tracking and pupillometry in VR. Neural recordings in the visual cortex validate the quality of image presentation, while hippocampal recordings, associative reward learning and innate fear responses to virtual looming stimuli demonstrate an immersive VR experience. Our open-source system's simplicity and compact size will enable the broader adoption of VR methods in neuroscience.

    View details for DOI 10.1038/s41592-024-02540-y

    View details for Web of Science ID 001376294500001

    View details for PubMedID 39668209

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC11810773

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1744-0785