Rett Syndrome Center, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, NY 10467, USA.
Pediatr Neurol. 2012 Jul;47(1):25-9. doi: 10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2012.04.009.
Consistently observed "strong eye gaze" has not been validated as a means of communication in girls with Rett syndrome, ubiquitously affected by apraxia, unable to reply either verbally or manually to questions during formal psychologic assessment. We examined nonverbal cognitive abilities and basic features of visual processing (visual discrimination attention/memory) by analyzing patterns of visual fixation in 44 girls with Rett syndrome, compared with typical control subjects. To determine features of visual fixation patterns, multiple pictures (with the location of the salient and presence/absence of novel stimuli as variables) were presented on the screen of a TS120 eye-tracker. Of the 44, 35 (80%) calibrated and exhibited meaningful patterns of visual fixation. They looked longer at salient stimuli (cartoon, 2.8 ± 2 seconds S.D., vs shape, 0.9 ± 1.2 seconds S.D.; P = 0.02), regardless of their position on the screen. They recognized novel stimuli, decreasing the fixation time on the central image when another image appeared on the periphery of the slide (2.7 ± 1 seconds S.D. vs 1.8 ± 1 seconds S.D., P = 0.002). Eye-tracking provides a feasible method for cognitive assessment and new insights into the "hidden" abilities of individuals with Rett syndrome.
一直以来被认为是交流方式的“强烈眼神接触”并未在雷特综合征女孩中得到验证，这些女孩普遍存在运动障碍，无法在正式的心理评估中通过言语或手动回答问题。我们通过分析 44 名雷特综合征女孩的视觉固定模式，研究了她们的非言语认知能力和基本视觉处理特征（视觉辨别注意力/记忆力），并与典型对照组进行了比较。为了确定视觉固定模式的特征，我们在 TS120 眼动追踪器的屏幕上呈现了多张图片（位置、显著和新颖刺激的存在/缺失是变量）。在这 44 名女孩中，有 35 名（80%）进行了校准并表现出有意义的视觉固定模式。她们会更长时间地注视显著刺激（卡通，2.8 ± 2 秒 S.D.，与形状，0.9 ± 1.2 秒 S.D.；P = 0.02），而不管刺激在屏幕上的位置如何。当幻灯片边缘出现另一张图片时，她们会识别出新的刺激，从而减少对中心图像的注视时间（2.7 ± 1 秒 S.D.与 1.8 ± 1 秒 S.D.；P = 0.002）。眼动追踪为认知评估提供了一种可行的方法，也为我们深入了解雷特综合征患者的“隐藏”能力提供了新的视角。
