Distinctive visual tasks for characterizing mild cognitive impairment and dementia using oculomotor behavior

Introduction: One’s eye movement (in response to visual tasks) provides a unique window into the cognitive processes and higher-order cognitive functions that become adversely affected in cases with cognitive decline, such as those mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. MCI is a transitional stage between normal aging and dementia. Methods: In the current work, we have focused on identifying visual tasks (such as horizontal and vertical Pro-saccade, Anti-saccade and Memory Guided Fixation tasks) that can differentiate individuals with MCI and dementia from their cognitively unimpaired healthy aging counterparts based on oculomotor Performance indices. In an attempt to identify the optimal combination of visual tasks that can be used to differentiate the participant groups, clustering was performed using the oculomotor Performance indices. Results: Results of our study with a group of 60 cognitively unimpaired healthy aging individuals, a group with 60 individuals with MCI and a group with 60 individuals with dementia indicate that the horizontal and vertical Anti-saccade tasks provided the optimal combination that could differentiate individuals with MCI and dementia from their cognitively unimpaired healthy aging counterparts with clustering accuracy of ∼92% based on the saccade latencies. Also, the saccade latencies during both of these Anti-saccade tasks were found to strongly correlate with the Neuropsychological test scores. Discussion: This suggests that the Anti-saccade tasks can hold promise in clinical practice for professionals working with individuals with MCI and dementia.