Method Article

Eye-Tracking Control to Assess Cognitive Functions in Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

DOI:

10.3791/54634

October 13th, 2016

In This Article

Summary

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Cognitive deficits are common in about one third of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurological condition leading to progressive impairments in speech and movement abilities. To conduct cognitive tests in patients unable to speak or write a reliable and easy to administer eye-tracking paradigm was developed.

Abstract

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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder with pathological involvement of upper and lower motoneurons, subsequently leading to progressive loss of motor and speech abilities. In addition, cognitive functions are impaired in a subset of patients. To evaluate these potential deficits in severely physically impaired ALS patients, eye-tracking is a promising means to conduct cognitive tests. The present article focuses on how eye movements, an indirect means of communication for physically disabled patients, can be utilized to allow for detailed neuropsychological assessment. The requirements, in terms of oculomotor parameters that have to be met for sufficient eye-tracking in ALS patients are presented. The properties of stimuli, including type of neuropsychological tests and style of presentation, best suited to successfully assess cognitive functioning, are also described. Furthermore, recommendations regarding procedural requirements are provided. Overall, this methodology provides a reliable, easy to administer and fast approach for assessing cognitive deficits in patients who are unable to speak or write such as patients with severe ALS. The only confounding factor might be deficits in voluntary eye movement control in a subset of ALS patients.

Introduction

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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder usually leading to death within 3 to 5 years. In the course of the pathology, patients present with progressive loss of respiratory and bulbar functioning as well as impairments in movement abilities1. It shares some clinical, pathological, and genetic features with frontotemporal dementia2 and it is well documented that about 30% of ALS patients exhibit cognitive deficits3. These deficits are most prominent in the domains of executive function, verbal fluency and language4 and have an influence on survival5, compliance6 and carer....

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Protocol

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The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Ulm (Statement No. 19/12) and the protocol described therefore follows their guidelines. All participants gave written informed consent.

1. Stimuli and Testing Environment

  1. To keep distractions to a minimum perform the research in a dark or a very dimly lit and quiet room.
  2. Use an appropriate eye tracking device.
    NOTE: There are a wide variety of devices available to perform eye movement studies. In the present research a portable eye movement recording device with goggles was used, which synchronously measure binocular eye positions, using two in....

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Results

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For the purpose of the research presented here, i.e., the development of a reliable oculomotor based neuropsychological assessment for ALS patients, in-house developed software stores the subject's choices of the CPM in a separate file, allowing for manual computation of the percentage of correct answers. For the D2-test, a record of the vertical eye movements is manually analyzed using a threshold of + 5° for detection of a relevant response. Recordings are assigned to each stim.......

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Discussion

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It is a challenging task to successfully assess the cognitive status of patients with ALS who are unable to speak and write. The use of videooculography systems provides a promising approach. The hereby presented technique is reliable in detecting cognitive deficits, which play a pivotal role in the context of carer burden and disease management20 in ALS patients. Also, the oculomotor versions of the CPM and the D2-test correlate significantly with their respective standard paper-pencil versions, but further s.......

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Disclosures

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The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Acknowledgements

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The authors would like to thank Ralf Kühne for technical support. This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF #01GM1103A). This is an EU Joint Programme-Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) project. The project is supported through the following organizations under the aegis of JPND-e.g., Germany, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF, FKZ), Sweden, Vetenskaprådet Sverige, Poland, Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju (NCBR).

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Materials

List of materials used in this article
NameCompanyCatalog NumberComments
EyeSeeCamEyeSeeTec GmbH; 82256 Fürstenfeldbruck, GermanyVideooculography device

References

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  1. Kiernan, M. C., et al. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Lancet. 377 (9769), 942-955 (2011).
  2. Neumann, M., et al. Ubiquitinated TDP-43 in frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Science. 314 (5796), 130-133 (2006).
  3. Beeldman, E....

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Tags

Eye TrackingCognitive AssessmentALS PatientsOculomotor TestingNeuropsychological TestsRaven CPM TestD2 TestEye Movement RecordingSaccadic TasksHemicylindrical Screen

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