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Correlating Multi-dimensional Oculometrics with Cognitive Performance in Healthy Youth Athletes

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Abstract

There is a need for a practical objective measure to detect mild changes in cognitive performance as early signs of concussion in youth or other special populations. In this paper, we propose a novel correlation model that establishes the relationship between oculometrics extracted from raw eye movements during a mental workload task and cognitive performance. We assessed differences in cognitive performance in terms of age for youth athletes based on oculometrics pertaining to fixations and saccades. In this cross-sectional study, oculometrics were measured on 440 healthy youth athletes aged 7 to 15 years. Oculometrics pertaining to fixations (fixation time, fixation size, and surface area of fixation) and saccades (total saccadic amplitude, average saccadic amplitude, and saccadic velocity) were measured and compiled into a multivariate oculometric database by age. We discovered that the combined power of fixations and saccades provided the strongest correlation with cognitive performance—a finding that is evident across all ages as well as all levels of mental workload difficulty. Specifically, the combined observations of fixation time, saccadic velocities, and saccadic amplitudes provided us an understanding of cognitive performance during different levels of mental workload difficulty across all age groups. This study is the first step towards establishing normative, multi-dimensional oculometrics for fixations and saccades in young athletes (7 to 15 years) who are at risk for concussion in sports and recreational activities.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Dr. David Dodick, Dr. Jennifer Wethe, Dr. Amaal Starling, and the entire Youth Athlete Study Team for facilitating and coordinating the data collection sessions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aerospace Medicine and Vestibular Research Laboratory, Mayo Clinic Arizona, 13400 E Shea Blvd, Scottsdale, AZ, 85259, USA

    Gaurav N. Pradhan, Jamie Bogle, Samantha Kleindienst, Michael J. Cevette & Jan Stepanek

Authors
  1. Gaurav N. Pradhan
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  2. Jamie Bogle
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  3. Samantha Kleindienst
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  4. Michael J. Cevette
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  5. Jan Stepanek
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gaurav N. Pradhan.

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Conflict of Interest

One or more of the investigators associated with this project and Mayo Clinic have a financial interest in the technology used in the research.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 4 Multiple comparison analysis of fixation and saccadic features between each pair of four age groups across all three K-D test cards (one-way ANOVA)
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Table 5 Multiple comparison analysis of fixation and saccadic features between each pair of three K-D test cards within each age groups (repeated-measures ANOVA)
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Pradhan, G.N., Bogle, J., Kleindienst, S. et al. Correlating Multi-dimensional Oculometrics with Cognitive Performance in Healthy Youth Athletes. J Healthc Inform Res 2, 132–151 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41666-017-0011-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41666-017-0011-8

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