Eye-Tracking Rapid Attention Computation (Eye-TRAC)

The main goal of this project is the development of a military-ready, sensitive and rapid eye tracking diagnostic device for individuals with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The device will also be tested for its efficacy in diagnosing fatigue and identifying aging effects. We will use a predictive visual tracking paradigm to dynamically capture the attentional state and correlate the subject's performance with the degree of disruption in the attention network caused by mTBI, aging and fatigue. The device will be tested for its diagnostic capabilities based on its selectivity, reliability, sensitivity and validity for individuals of varying ages (with and without mTBI) and in military personnel who have undergone 26 hours of sleep deprivation.

Testing will be conducted at two sites:

1. Civilians with mTBI; and civilians with adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder will be tested by trained staff of the Brain Trauma Foundation (BTF) at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) in New York City. The ages of the enrolled individuals will range between 18-55 years in order to examine aging effects.
2. Enrolled service members will be tested at the United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM) in Natick, Massachusetts. These service members will be healthy volunteers without a history of mTBI. Some of these subjects will undergo 26 hours of sleep deprivation during which they will be tested at specific time points.

Our objectives are:

1. Prove that the eye-tracking concept can be brought from a successful laboratory device to a specific, reliable, selective, and valid diagnostic tool.

1.1. Test reliability by examining the test-retest reliability measures of EYE-TRAC;

1.2. Test selectivity by testing the ability to differentiating the effects of fatigue, aging, and mTBI on EYE-TRAC measures;

1.3. Test validity by determining the relationship between measures of attention and working memory based on the EYE-TRAC and validated measures of sustained attention and working memory;

1.4. Test specificity by measuring the spectrum of TBI injury using MRI-DTI and correlate with EYE-TRAC.