Integrating classical binocular vision testing with objective eye-tracking to characterise oculomotor dysfunction in...

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology and Vision Science
• Neuroscience
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Strabismus significantly impacts binocular vision and oculomotor control.
• Conventional tests may not fully capture the functional deficits associated with strabismus.
• Objective eye-tracking offers quantitative metrics to complement existing assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare oculomotor parameters between strabismus patients and healthy controls.
• To integrate traditional optometric/ophthalmological tests with objective eye-tracking measurements.
• To identify objective eye-movement metrics that effectively discriminate strabismus.

Main Methods:

• An observational cross-sectional study involving 56 participants (20 strabismus, 36 controls).
• Standardized optometric/ophthalmological examinations were performed.
• Binocular eye-tracking assessed Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test, fixation stability, saccades, smooth pursuit, and reading metrics.

Main Results:

• Strabismus patients exhibited significantly longer DEM times, higher error rates, and reduced reading speed compared to controls.
• Eye-tracking revealed increased fixation and saccadic counts in the strabismus group.
• DEM performance and reading speed were identified as strong independent predictors of strabismus with high discriminatory accuracy (AUC > 0.80).

Conclusions:

• Strabismus is linked to substantial deficits in oculomotor sequencing and reading-related eye movements.
• Objective eye-tracking metrics, especially DEM performance and reading efficiency, provide clinically relevant data.
• These eye-tracking metrics serve as sensitive functional biomarkers for characterizing strabismus.