Kim Ji-Yeong, Lee Jiho, Kim Nayeon, Park Ki-Su, Yoon Janghyeok, Kang Kyunghun, Ha Ji-Wan
Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Daegu University, Gyeongsan, Republic of Korea.
Neopons Inc., Daegu, Republic of Korea.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2025 Apr 23;17:1527962. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1527962. eCollection 2025.
In patients with Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH), the aging process results in decreased efficiency of cerebrospinal fluid circulation, leading to ventricular enlargement. This enlargement compresses several brain structures, impairing functions such as visual perception, semantic memory processing, and phonological encoding contributing to language processing difficulties. This study examines real-time language processing in NPH patients and healthy elderly (HE) controls by comparing their eye movements during correct and incorrect responses in a lexical retrieval task (LRT).
A total of 26 subjects participated, comprising 14 patients diagnosed with NPH (aged 65 or older) and 12 individuals in the HE group. A lexical retrieval task was administered as their eye movements were recorded. A Mann-Whitney U test was performed to compare LRT performance and eye-tracking metric results across different groups, respectively. Also, correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationship between LRT scores and eye-tracking scores. A two-way mixed ANOVA was conducted to assess the significance of eye-tracking metrics depending on response type (correct/incorrect). Additionally, a qualitative and quantitative comparison of heatmaps and scanpaths was conducted to visualize eye-tracking data for correct and incorrect items.
The NPH group exhibited significantly lower performance in lexical retrieval compared to the HE group, accompanied by more counts and longer durations in both fixation and saccade metrics. A negative correlation was noted between LRT scores and eye-tracking metric values, with correlation coefficients predominantly at 0.50 or higher. Analysis of eye movements during correct and incorrect responses uncovered significant group and within-group effects across all metrics, with more intergroup differences during incorrect responses. Qualitative differences in eye movements were more noticeable in images associated with incorrect items.
This study highlights previously under-explored language deficits in NPH patients using real-time visual processing analysis, underscoring the importance of targeted language interventions for these populations.
在正常压力脑积水（NPH）患者中，衰老过程导致脑脊液循环效率降低，进而引起脑室扩大。这种扩大压迫多个脑结构，损害诸如视觉感知、语义记忆处理和语音编码等功能，从而导致语言处理困难。本研究通过比较词汇检索任务（LRT）中正确和错误反应期间的眼动，来检查NPH患者和健康老年人（HE）对照组的实时语言处理情况。
共有26名受试者参与，包括14名被诊断为NPH的患者（年龄在65岁及以上）和12名HE组个体。在记录他们眼动的同时进行词汇检索任务。分别进行曼-惠特尼U检验以比较不同组之间的LRT表现和眼动追踪指标结果。此外，进行相关分析以检查LRT分数与眼动追踪分数之间的关系。进行双向混合方差分析以评估取决于反应类型（正确/错误）的眼动追踪指标的显著性。另外，对热图和扫描路径进行定性和定量比较，以可视化正确和错误项目的眼动追踪数据。
与HE组相比，NPH组在词汇检索方面表现明显更低，同时在注视和扫视指标上的计数更多且持续时间更长。LRT分数与眼动追踪指标值之间存在负相关，相关系数主要在0.50或更高。对正确和错误反应期间的眼动分析发现，所有指标在组间和组内均存在显著影响，错误反应期间的组间差异更大。与错误项目相关的图像中眼动的定性差异更明显。
本研究通过实时视觉处理分析突出了NPH患者先前未充分探索的语言缺陷，强调了针对这些人群进行有针对性语言干预的重要性。
