Category: Parkinson's Disease: Cognitive functions
Objective: To investigate the correlation between the cognitive status of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and oculomotor parameters captured by a software-based eye-tracking platform using artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning models.
Background: Studies have focused on analyzing oculomotor parameters in PD patients as a potential biomarker of their clinical status, including cognitive function. Understanding the association between oculomotor parameters and cognitive status is relevant to identifying neural impairments, tracking changes over time, and assessing treatment effects in clinical trials.
Method: As a part of an ongoing prospective longitudinal multicenter clinical trial across five European and US medical centers, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 204 PD patients (79 women, with a mean age of 65.98±9.52 years, a median Hoehn and Yahr score of 2, mean MoCA score of 25.80±3.31). Patients underwent cognitive evaluations using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA, version 8.1) and eye-tracking assessments (NeuraLight, Israel), including cognitive-based tasks of tracking and gaze fixation on on-screen stimuli. Pearson’s correlation was used to calculate associations between cognitive scores and oculomotor parameters.
Results: Oculomotor parameters in different anti-saccadic tasks were negatively correlated with MoCA scores. For instance, corrective measures had a mean of 7.88±5.10 degrees, with a correlation coefficient of R=-0.42, p<0.001. Similarly, the rate (%) of uncorrected errors had a mean of 9.07±14.19, R=-0.35, p<0.001, and response time averaged 301.37±78.26 ms, R=-0.33, p<0.001.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that PD patients’ oculomotor parameters are associated with their cognitive status, indicating the potential utility of automated eye movement analyses as a surrogate cognitive function tool. However, further longitudinal data are necessary to validate the use of oculomotor parameters in monitoring cognitive decline in PD patients over time.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
M. Tosin, C. Goetz, R. Armstrong, C. Januario, B. Balint, P. Mir. Evaluating Cognitive Status in Parkinson’s Disease Using a Software-based Eye-Tracking Platform: Preliminary Results of the PALOMA Clinical Trial [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2024; 39 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/evaluating-cognitive-status-in-parkinsons-disease-using-a-software-based-eye-tracking-platform-preliminary-results-of-the-paloma-clinical-trial/. Accessed June 17, 2025.« Back to 2024 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/evaluating-cognitive-status-in-parkinsons-disease-using-a-software-based-eye-tracking-platform-preliminary-results-of-the-paloma-clinical-trial/