Background: The pathogenesis of dementia often starts several years prior to clinical onset during which the individual is asymptomatic. Existing strategies for the accurate diagnosis of early dementia are limited by high cost and the invasive nature of the procedures. Eye movement parameters associated with cognitive functions may be helpful in the early identification of dementia and in the development and evaluation of preventive and therapeutic strategies. Objective: We aimed to assess differences in eye movement parameters between healthy elderly individuals and patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Furthermore, we examined the correlations between eye movement parameters with cognitive functions and specific hemispheric region and neural structures in individuals with MCI. Method: Eighty individuals with MCI without dementia (based on DSM-IV criteria) identified by community screening and 170 healthy controls were administered Chinese versions of MoCA and NTB, and a long (20 min) or short (5 min) version of a visual paired comparison (VPC) task. Two weeks later, 44 MCI patients and 107 healthy controls completed a retest of the VPC task, 44 MCI patients and 43 healthy controls among them administered a MRI. At the end of 1-year follow-up, a subset of 26 individuals with MCI and 57 healthy controls were administered the long version of VPC task and MoCA test again. Eye movement parameters and the relationship of eye movement parameters with cognitive functions and with changes in neural structures were compared between groups. Results: Patients with MCI were older, had less education, and had lower scores on cognitive tests than healthy controls. After adjustment for age and level of education, patients with MCI had lower novelty preference scores on the VPC than healthy controls. Using the logistic regression model, the amount of time that subjects focused on these novel images could predict MCI patients from normal elderly with an out of sample area