Journal Article

Eye-tracking controlled cognitive function tests in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a controlled proof-of-principle study

Aho-Özhan, Helena E. A., Uttner, Ingo, Kassubek, Jan, Ludolph, Albert C., Horn, Hannah T., Keller, Jürgen, Pinkhardt, Elmar H., Gorges, Martin, Lulé, Dorothée

2015

Overview

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) primarily affects motor and speech abilities. In addition, cognitive functions are impaired in a subset of patients. There is a need to establish an eye movement-based method of neuropsychological assessment suitable for severely physically impaired patients with ALS. Forty-eight ALS patients and thirty-two healthy controls matched for age, sex and education performed a hand and speech motor-free version of the Raven’s coloured progressive matrices (CPM) and the D2-test which had been especially adapted for eye-tracking control. Data were compared to a classical motor-dependent paper–pencil version. The association of parameters of the eye-tracking and the paper–pencil version of the tests and the differences between and within groups were studied. Subjects presented similar results in the eye-tracking and the corresponding paper–pencil versions of the CPM and D2-test: a correlation between performance accuracy for the CPM was observed for ALS patients ( p  < 0.001) and controls ( p  < 0.001) and in the D2-test for controls ( p  = 0.048), whereas this correlation did not reach statistical significance for ALS patients ( p  = 0.096). ALS patients performed worse in the CPM than controls in the eye-tracking ( p  = 0.053) and the paper–pencil version ( p  = 0.042). Most importantly, eye-tracking versions of the CPM ( p  < 0.001) and the D2-test ( p  = 0.024) reliably distinguished between more and less cognitively impaired patients. Eye-tracking-based neuropsychological testing is a promising approach for assessing cognitive deficits in patients who are unable to speak or write such as patients with severe ALS.

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Adult / Aged / Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis / Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - complications / Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - diagnosis / Cognition Disorders - diagnosis / Cognition Disorders - etiology / Cognitive ability / Education / Executive function / Executive Function - physiology / Eye Movement Measurements - standards / Eye movements / Female / Humans / Male / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Middle Aged / Neurology / Neuropsychological Tests - standards / Neuropsychology / Neuroradiology / Neurosciences / Original Communication / Reproducibility of Results / Sensitivity and Specificity