Diagnostic Tools for Children with Severe Multiple Developmental Disorders: Eye-tracking and Eelectroencephalogram Approaches

Abstract

Two pilot studies of children with profound damages of central nervous system were conducted by using eye-tracking. Design of electroencephalographic event related potentials (ERP) study is proposed.We aimed to test different approaches for diagnostic of this clinical group using eye-tracking and electroencephalography.First study was an attempt to adopt classical diagnostic tool with verbal instruction to presentation on tablet with integrated eye-tracker. The result of this study reveals that it is impossible to use standard tools for very impaired children. Furthermore, we proposed several factors that could be crucial for eye-tracking tasks performance.In the second study we tried to avoid tasks that require verbal instruction and voluntary control. Visual search task and Posner cuing task were presented trough tablet with integrated eye-tracker. No reliable records of gaze were obtained in this study.Planning study is developed for using of ERP for diagnostic. We proposed that ERP passive oddball paradigm may allow us to examine psychological state and cognitive process of children.In the end we discussed the conditions and requirements for both approach application in diagnostic children with severe multiple developmental disorders.