The visual function is one of the first skills that develop in newborns and it has a key role in the perceptual, cognitive and psychomotor development. The purpose of the present study is to quantitatively analyse infants’ horizontal eye movements using a non‐invasive system. We developed a new set‐up, CareToy C, composed of 5 monitors, one in the center and two at 60° and 30° on the two sides, an eyetracker (SmartEye, 6 cameras sampling at 60Hz) and a dedicated software. Measurements of gaze movements for visual and audio‐visual stimuli in a control sample of 9 healthy infants (age range: 4 and 10 months) were carried out to assess the feasibility. The orientation to stimuli at 60° is executed with a similar movement of head and eyes (27.73°/24.51°), while at 30° the larger movement is done by the eyes (21.75°/5.64°). The synchronous association between a sound and a visual stimulus reduces in both components of the gaze the latency value and the time of movement, both at 30° and 60°. The strategies of the orientation to the visual stimuli at 30°/60° are different and the sound accelerates the response time. This approach is promising to provide, with a larger sample of term and preterm infants, normative values for the study of the typical development of visual function and to be applied as secondary outcome measure for the ongoing CareToy clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01990183).
CareToy C: a new set-up for the assessment of visual attention and audio-visual integration in the first year of age
Beani E.;Sgandurra G.;Cioni G.;
2015-01-01
Abstract
The visual function is one of the first skills that develop in newborns and it has a key role in the perceptual, cognitive and psychomotor development. The purpose of the present study is to quantitatively analyse infants’ horizontal eye movements using a non‐invasive system. We developed a new set‐up, CareToy C, composed of 5 monitors, one in the center and two at 60° and 30° on the two sides, an eyetracker (SmartEye, 6 cameras sampling at 60Hz) and a dedicated software. Measurements of gaze movements for visual and audio‐visual stimuli in a control sample of 9 healthy infants (age range: 4 and 10 months) were carried out to assess the feasibility. The orientation to stimuli at 60° is executed with a similar movement of head and eyes (27.73°/24.51°), while at 30° the larger movement is done by the eyes (21.75°/5.64°). The synchronous association between a sound and a visual stimulus reduces in both components of the gaze the latency value and the time of movement, both at 30° and 60°. The strategies of the orientation to the visual stimuli at 30°/60° are different and the sound accelerates the response time. This approach is promising to provide, with a larger sample of term and preterm infants, normative values for the study of the typical development of visual function and to be applied as secondary outcome measure for the ongoing CareToy clinical trial (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01990183).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
