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Published on: December 7, 2018
Gaze Dispersion During a Sustained-Fixation Task as a Proxy of Visual Attention in Children with ADHD
Lionel Moiroud1,2, Ana Moscoso3, Eric Acquaviva3
1ICAR UMR 5191, CNRS, ENS de Lyon, Site Descartes, 15 parvis René Descartes, BP 7000, 69342 Lyon Cedex 07, France.
Aim:
The aim of this preliminary study was to explore the visual attention in children with ADHD using eye-tracking, and to identify a relevant quantitative proxy of their attentional control.
Methods:
Twenty-two children diagnosed with ADHD (aged 7 to 12 years) and their 24 sex-, age-matched control participants with typical development performed a visual sustained-fixation task using an eye-tracker. Fixation stability was estimated by calculating the bivariate contour ellipse area (BCEA) as a continuous index of gaze dispersion during the task.
Results:
Children with ADHD showed a significantly higher BCEA than control participants (p < 0.001), reflecting their increased gaze instability. The impairment in gaze fixation persisted even in the absence of visual distractors, suggesting intrinsic attentional dysregulation in ADHD.
Conclusions:
Our results provide preliminary evidence that eye-tracking coupled with BCEA analysis, provides a sensitive and non-invasive tool for quantifying visual attentional resources of children with ADHD. If replicated and extended, the increased use of gaze instability as an indicator of visual attention in children could have a major impact in clinical settings to assist clinicians. This analysis focuses on overall gaze dispersion rather than fine eye micro-movements such as microsaccades.
