UWA Dental School, The University of Western Australia, 17 Monash Avenue, Nedlands, WA, 6009, Australia.
Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong SAR.
Sci Rep. 2022 May 6;12(1):7462. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-11174-z.
No previous studies have investigated eye-movement patterns to show children's information processing while viewing clinical images. Therefore, this study aimed to explore children and their educators' perception of a midline diastema by applying eye-movement analysis using the hidden Markov models (EMHMM). A total of 155 children between 2.5 and 5.5 years of age and their educators (n = 34) viewed pictures with and without a midline diastema while Tobii Pro Nano eye-tracker followed their eye movements. Fixation data were analysed using data-driven, and fixed regions of interest (ROIs) approaches with EMHMM. Two different eye-movement patterns were identified: explorative pattern (76%), where the children's ROIs were predominantly around the nose and mouth, and focused pattern (26%), where children's ROIs were precise, locating on the teeth with and without a diastema, and fixations transited among the ROIs with similar frequencies. Females had a significantly higher eye-movement preference for without diastema image than males. Comparisons between the different age groups showed a statistically significant difference for overall entropies. The 3.6-4.5y age groups exhibited higher entropies, indicating lower eye-movement consistency. In addition, children and their educators exhibited two specific eye-movement patterns. Children in the explorative pattern saw the midline diastema more often while their educators focussed on the image without diastema. Thus, EMHMMs are valuable in analysing eye-movement patterns in children and adults.
先前的研究并未调查过儿童在观看临床图像时的眼动模式，以展示他们的信息处理过程。因此，本研究旨在应用隐马尔可夫模型（EMHMM）的眼动分析来探索儿童及其教育者对中缝间隙的感知。共有 155 名 2.5 至 5.5 岁的儿童及其教育者（n=34）观看了带有和不带有中缝间隙的图片，同时 Tobii Pro Nano 眼动追踪仪跟踪他们的眼动。使用数据驱动和固定感兴趣区域（ROI）的方法，通过 EMHMM 分析注视数据。确定了两种不同的眼动模式：探索性模式（76%），儿童的 ROI 主要集中在鼻子和嘴巴周围；聚焦性模式（26%），儿童的 ROI 精确，位于有和没有间隙的牙齿上，注视点在 ROI 之间转移的频率相似。女性对无间隙图像的眼动偏好明显高于男性。不同年龄组之间的比较在总熵方面显示出统计学上的显著差异。3.6-4.5 岁年龄组的熵值较高，表明眼动一致性较低。此外，儿童及其教育者表现出两种特定的眼动模式。处于探索性模式的儿童更频繁地看到中缝间隙，而他们的教育者则关注没有间隙的图像。因此，EMHMM 可用于分析儿童和成人的眼动模式。
