Following the movement of eyes could allow doctors to make quick,
accurate diagnoses for disorders like autism and schizophrenia, experts
have claimed.
Eye tracking, which records where subjects focus when watching visual displays, could diagnose brain disorders more accurately than subjective questionnaires or medical examinations do, researchers believe.
To make sense of all that people see, the brain filters huge amounts of visual information, fills in gaps and focuses on certain objects.
That complex task uses many mental circuits, so differences in what people choose to look at - differences so subtle that only a computer can spot them - could provide unprecedented insight into common neurological problems, Livescience reported.
"Eye tracking is a great way to assess somebody's spontaneous attention and preference. That's really fundamental to who you are as a person," said Karen Pierce, a researcher at the University of California, San Diego, Autism School of Excellence.
Pierce's team recently created a one-minute screening test to identify autism in high-risk kids. Toddlers watched two videos play simultaneously — one of people doing yoga, and another of moving geometric shapes.
Typically developing children focus on people, while kids with autism, who suffer from social and language deficits tend to look more at the shapes, the researchers said.
The test could identify 40 per cent of those with autism, but it doesn't wrongly flag toddlers who don't have the disorder, Pierce told the website.
Another researcher Jennifer Wagner from Children's Hospital in Boston, is comparing the gaze patterns of low-risk children and siblings of those with autism, who have a 20 per cent chance of developing the disorder.
Wagner's team studies babies between 6 months and 12 months old to try to detect autism sooner than the typical diagnoses, which are made around age 2.
"If a screening tool catches kids younger, when their neural connections are still changing rapidly, maybe you can start retraining the brain before it gets solidified in a way that's maladaptive," Wagner said.
Eye tracking, which records where subjects focus when watching visual displays, could diagnose brain disorders more accurately than subjective questionnaires or medical examinations do, researchers believe.
To make sense of all that people see, the brain filters huge amounts of visual information, fills in gaps and focuses on certain objects.
That complex task uses many mental circuits, so differences in what people choose to look at - differences so subtle that only a computer can spot them - could provide unprecedented insight into common neurological problems, Livescience reported.
"Eye tracking is a great way to assess somebody's spontaneous attention and preference. That's really fundamental to who you are as a person," said Karen Pierce, a researcher at the University of California, San Diego, Autism School of Excellence.
Pierce's team recently created a one-minute screening test to identify autism in high-risk kids. Toddlers watched two videos play simultaneously — one of people doing yoga, and another of moving geometric shapes.
Typically developing children focus on people, while kids with autism, who suffer from social and language deficits tend to look more at the shapes, the researchers said.
The test could identify 40 per cent of those with autism, but it doesn't wrongly flag toddlers who don't have the disorder, Pierce told the website.
Another researcher Jennifer Wagner from Children's Hospital in Boston, is comparing the gaze patterns of low-risk children and siblings of those with autism, who have a 20 per cent chance of developing the disorder.
Wagner's team studies babies between 6 months and 12 months old to try to detect autism sooner than the typical diagnoses, which are made around age 2.
"If a screening tool catches kids younger, when their neural connections are still changing rapidly, maybe you can start retraining the brain before it gets solidified in a way that's maladaptive," Wagner said.
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