Work

Saccadic eye movements in childhood: A pilot study comparing clinical eye tracker software and the NSUCO

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: PURPOSE: To explore differences in saccadic eye movements between children with oculomotor dysfunction and those in a control group across three age groups, using two assessment methods: the subjective Northeastern State University College of Optometry (NSUCO) Oculomotor test and objective analysis with the Tobii Eye X Eye Tracker (Tobii Eye X, Tobii, Stockholm, Sweden). METHODS: This study included 31 children (ages 7-13) diagnosed with oculomotor dysfunction and 16 age-matched children in the control group. Participants were divided into three age groups: group 1 (7-8 years), group 2 (9-11 years), and group 3 (12-13 years). Saccadic eye movements were evaluated and compared using two methods: the NSUCO test and the Tobii Eye X eye tracker, along with specialized software analysis (Thomson Software Solutions, Welham Green, UK) RESULTS: Children in the oculomotor dysfunction group obtained significantly lower NSUCO scores (p < 0.001) compared to the control group. Regarding eye tracking analyses, a significantly higher number of hypometric saccades were found in oculomotor dysfunction group (p ≤ 0.044). Additionally, in this group a significantly higher percentage of regressions was observed for a 1-second stimulus presentation interval (p = 0.012). Significant correlations were found between different NSUCO scores and the percentage of regressions, the number of completed saccades and the number of hypometric saccades. CONCLUSION: The presence of hypometric saccades and regressions appears to be a distinguishing characteristic of children with oculomotor dysfunction, detectable through both objective eye tracking analysis and the subjective NSUCO test, which can be easily implemented in clinical settings.

Source: Journal of Optometry

DOI: 10.1016/j.optom.2025.100565