- Center of Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, Brazil; - Department of Medicine, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
- Center of Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, Brazil.
Neuropsychologia. 2019 Oct;133:107191. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107191. Epub 2019 Sep 12.
Eye tracking (ET) studies are becoming increasingly popular due to rapid methodological and technological advances as well as the development of cost efficient and portable eye trackers. Although historically ET has been mostly employed in psychophysics or developmental cognition studies, there is also promising scope to use ET for movement disorders and measuring cognitive processes in neurodegeneration. Particularly, ET can be a powerful tool for cognitive and neuropsychological assessments of patients with pathologies affecting motor and verbal abilities, as tasks can be adapted without requiring motor (except eye movements) or verbal responses. In this review, we will examine the existing evidence of ET methods in neurodegenerative conditions and its potential clinical impact for cognitive assessment. We highlight that current evidence for ET is mostly focused on diagnostics of cognitive impairments in neurodegenerative disorders, where it is debatable whether it has any more sensitivity or specificity than existing cognitive assessments. By contrast, there is currently a lack of ET studies in more advanced disease stages, when patients' motor and verbal functions can be significantly affected, and standard cognitive assessments are challenging or often not possible. We conclude that ET is a promising method not only for cognitive diagnostics but more importantly, for potential cognitive disease tracking in progressive neurodegenerative conditions.
眼动追踪（ET）研究由于方法和技术的快速发展以及成本效益高和便携式眼动追踪器的开发而变得越来越流行。尽管历史上 ET 主要用于心理物理学或发展认知研究，但也有希望将其用于运动障碍和测量神经退行性变中的认知过程。特别是，ET 可以成为评估影响运动和言语能力的病理患者认知和神经心理学的有力工具，因为任务可以进行调整而无需运动（除了眼动）或言语反应。在这篇综述中，我们将检查现有的 ET 方法在神经退行性疾病中的证据及其对认知评估的潜在临床影响。我们强调，目前 ET 的证据主要集中在神经退行性疾病认知障碍的诊断上，在这些疾病中，它是否比现有的认知评估更敏感或更特异存在争议。相比之下，目前在疾病的更晚期阶段缺乏 ET 研究，此时患者的运动和言语功能可能会受到严重影响，标准的认知评估具有挑战性或通常不可能进行。我们的结论是，ET 不仅是一种有前途的认知诊断方法，而且更重要的是，对于进行性神经退行性疾病的潜在认知疾病跟踪具有重要意义。
