Visual scanning preferences in low birth weight preterm infants

Abstract

Introduction Few studies have used eye tracking as a screening tool for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in preterm infants. Objectives To evaluate fixation time on social and non-social figures and percentage of preterm babies who gazed at the images. Methods This was a cross-sectional study of 31 preterm infants born weighing ≤ 2,000 g in which eye gaze was evaluated at 6 months of corrected age. Six boards with social and non-social figures were projected on a computer screen, successively, evaluating time and percentage of preterm babies who gazed at each board. The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) was answered at 18 months of corrected age. Results Preterm infants showed longer visual fixation time on social figures compared with non-social images, regardless of the position of the social figure on the board. Similar percentages of preterm infants gazed either at social or non-social figures, at social figures with a direct or an indirect look, and at the eyes or mouth of the social figures. No preterm infant screened positive on the M-CHAT. Conclusion At 6 months of corrected age, preterm infants show the ability to gaze in an eye-tracking test, with preference for social figures, suggesting that this tool could be useful as another screening instrument for ASD.

The Role of Intelligent Technologies in Early Detection of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Scoping Review

“…They applied DA (Discriminant analysis) to mouth and body AOI fixation data and classified ASD and TD children. [58] studied six-month-old preterm children's gaze and fixation on social figures, suggesting that children preferred looking at the eyes or lips of social figures over nonsocial images. However, at 18 months, each subject tested negative for ASD when evaluated on M-CHAT and without CG (control group) presence; the results provided weak evidence to detect and classify ASD and ODD.…”

“…There are only three studies that reported greater than 250 participants [74], [77], [78], six studies between 150-250 [47]- [50], [72], [76] and another six studies between 100-150 participants [52], [61], [62], [65], [67], [73]. Seven studies [46], [51], [54], [56], [57], [60], [68] reported enrolment between 50-100 participants and nine studies [44], [45], [55], [58], [59], [64], [69]- [71] represented between 10-50 enrollments. Two studies reported less than 10 participants [53], [66].…”

“…The review selected a variety of approaches to capture unstructured data. Eye trackers such as Tobii [56], [61] , BeGaze software [57], SensoMotoric with infrared tech sensors [59] and Mirametrix S2 Eye Tracker [58] captured eye-gaze data. While inertial sensors, tri-axial accelerometer, and gyroscopes captured motor motions [68]- [70] data.…”

Screening for Autism Spectrum Disorder in Premature Subjects Hospitalized in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

“…Recent years have demonstrated the relation between NICU experiences and changes in psychic development [ 13 ]. In a systematic review, Gardener et al [ 14 ] sought to explain the association between perinatal and neonatal factors and the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) [ 14 ], concluding that there is no exact description of how these events relate to the risk of ASD.…”

Inovação, possibilidades e limitações no uso de rastreador ocular na pesquisa em divulgação da ciência: um estudo sobre a importância da fonte de informação em textos sobre saúde

“…Tampouco são encontrados artigos científicos nas três principais revistas da área -Science Communication, Public Understanding of Science e Journal of Science Communication -que tenham utilizado a técnica do rastreamento ocular como forma de aferir dados para a pesquisa em divulgação da ciência. 4 A técnica, porém, aparece em pesquisas latino-americanas de outras áreas, como letras e linguística (PORTO; FREITAG; TEJADA, 2018; MALTA; FONTES; SILVA, 2019), tecnologia da informação (ROA-MARTÍNEZ; VIDOTTI, 2020), marketing (SANTOS; MORENO; SÁNCHEZ-FRANCO, 2018), psicologia e psiquiatria (SCHWARTZMAN et al, 2015;LEDERMAN et al, 2019;CLAUDINO et al, 2019).…”