Distinctive visual tasks for characterizing mild cognitive impairment and dementia using oculomotor behavior
Dharma Rane1, Deba Prasad Dash1, Alakananda Dutt2
1Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Electrical Engineering, Palaj, Gujarat, India.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
|August 7, 2023
Summary
Eye movement tasks, specifically horizontal and vertical Anti-saccade tests, effectively differentiate mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia from healthy aging. Saccade latencies during these tasks show high accuracy and correlate with cognitive test scores.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Ophthalmology
- Gerontology
Background:
- Eye movements offer insights into cognitive function and decline.
- Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) represents a stage between normal aging and dementia.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify visual tasks that distinguish individuals with MCI and dementia from healthy aging adults.
- To determine the optimal combination of oculomotor tasks for differentiating cognitive decline using clustering analysis.
Main Methods:
- Oculomotor performance indices were analyzed from horizontal and vertical Pro-saccade, Anti-saccade, and Memory Guided Fixation tasks.
- Clustering algorithms were applied to oculomotor performance data to identify differentiating task combinations.
Main Results:
- Horizontal and vertical Anti-saccade tasks demonstrated the highest accuracy (∼92%) in differentiating cognitive groups based on saccade latencies.
- Saccade latencies in Anti-saccade tasks strongly correlated with neuropsychological test scores.
Conclusions:
- Anti-saccade tasks show significant promise for clinical application in identifying and assessing MCI and dementia.
- Oculomotor performance, particularly saccade latency, serves as a reliable biomarker for cognitive impairment.
