Analysis and novel methods for capture of normative eye-tracking data in 2.5-month old infants

Abstract

Development of attention systems is essential for both cognitive and social behavior maturation. Visual behavior has been used to assess development of these attention systems. Yet, given its importance, there is a notable lack of literature detailing successful methods and procedures for using eye-tracking in early infancy to assess oculomotor and attention dynamics. Here we show that eye-tracking technology can be used to automatically record and assess visual behavior in infants as young as 2.5 months, and present normative data describing fixation and saccade behavior at this age. Features of oculomotor dynamics were analyzed from 2.5-month old infants who viewed videos depicting live action, cartoons, geometric shapes, social and non-social scenes. Of the 54 infants enrolled, 50 infants successfully completed the eye-tracking task and high-quality data was collected for 32 of those infants. We demonstrate that modifications specifically tailored for the infant population allowed for consistent tracking of pupil and corneal reflection and minimal data loss. Additionally, we found consistent fixation and saccade behaviors across the entire six-minute duration of the videos, indicating that this is a feasible task for 2.5-month old infants. Moreover, normative oculomotor metrics for a free-viewing task in 2.5-month old infants are documented for the first time as a result of this high-quality data collection.