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Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior
Published on: November 14, 2018
Altered System-Level Integration Between Working Memory and Gaze Dynamics in Children Treated for Posterior Fossa
Sofia A Mironets1, Victoria I Ismatullina2, Timofey V Adamovich2
1Dmitry Rogachev National Medical Research Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and Immunology, Moscow, Russia.
Background:
In recent years, experimental studies concerning the role of the cerebellum in cognitive functions and a variety of language deficits have been conducted.
Objective:
To evaluate the impact of posterior fossa tumors (PFT) on spatial working memory and eye-movement behavior during reading in children and to compare the system-level organization of working memory and gaze-related parameters between patients and typically developing peers.
Design:
This retrospective cohort study applied advanced analytical methods, including Drift Diffusion Modeling (DDM) and Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA), to capture the temporal dynamics of cognitive processing and oculomotor control. The study included 119 children aged 8 to 17 years: 59 survivors of posterior fossa tumors and 60 healthy controls. Working memory was assessed using the Spatial Span task from the CANTAB battery, modeled using DDM parameters, while eye movements during reading were recorded with eye tracking and analyzed using RQA. Network analysis was conducted to characterize cross-domain integration between working memory dynamics and gaze behavior.
Results:
Our findings indicate that cerebellar disruption due to tumor and treatment affects not only isolated aspects of reading or eye-movement behavior, but also the functional coordination between working memory and oculomotor control. Stronger working memory capacity was associated with more organized and predictable gaze dynamics in controls, whereas patients showed reduced flexibility and altered connectivity patterns. RQA parameters captured a unified dynamical system, linking cognitive control and motor implementation during reading.
Conclusion:
These findings highlight the importance of considering subtle, system-level disruptions in posterior fossa tumor patients and underscore the relevance of using multimodal, temporally sensitive approaches when designing rehabilitation protocols.
