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Saccade latencies during a preferential looking task and objective scoring of grating acuity in children with and without visual impairments
Author(s) -
Barsingerhorn Annemiek D.,
Boonstra F. Nienke,
Goossens Jeroen
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/aos.14011
Subject(s) - saccade , gaze , audiology , eye tracking , grating , eye movement , psychology , task (project management) , computer science , computer vision , artificial intelligence , medicine , optics , physics , management , economics
Purpose We determined the latencies of orienting responses during a preferential looking task in children with normal vision and in children with visual impairments between 6 and 12 years old, and assessed the feasibility of scoring grating detection in these populations with video‐based eye tracking. Methods Children performed a computerized preferential looking test, while a remote eye tracker measured the children's eye movements. The stimuli consisted of a 2 × 2 grid, with three uniform grey fields and one target field consisting of a black‐and‐white square wave grating. The grating was presented randomly at one of the four locations. The spatial frequencies (1.05, 2.11 and 7.02 cyc/deg) were randomly interleaved, with 10 trials per spatial frequency. Three different methods were used to score the accuracy of the responses: (1) primary saccade ends on target, (1) gaze 50% of the presentation time on target, and (3) a combination of method 1 and 2 (i.e. primary saccade ends on target, and/or gaze 50% of the presentation time on target). Results The combined scoring method was most reliable to determine whether children could resolve the gratings. Children with visual impairments had significantly lower accuracies than children with normal vision with all three scoring methods. In addition, saccade latencies decreased with age and were significantly longer (62 ± 15 ms) in children with visual impairments. Conclusion The use of eye tracking to assess grating detection with a preferential looking task in clinical populations provides valuable additional information, including objective detection measures and developmental delays in saccade latencies.