Digital Neuropsychology: Remote anti-saccade task using webcam-based eye tracking

JUANTORENA G; FIGARI F; PENAS A; PETRONI A; KAMIENKOWSKI JE

Congreso; XXXVIII Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias; 2023

Over the last years, several developments of remote webcam-based eye tracking (ET)prototypes have emerged, testing their feasibility and potential for web-based experiments.This growing interest is mainly explained by the possibility to perform tasks remotely, whichallows the study of larger and hard-to-reach populations and potential applications intelemedicine. Nevertheless, a decrease in the quality of the camera and a noisierenvironment bring new implementation challenges. In this study, we present a new prototypeof remote webcam-based ET. First, we introduced improvements to the state-of-the-artremote ET prototypes for cognitive and clinical tasks, e.g. without the necessity of constantmouse interactions. Second, we assessed its spatiotemporal resolution and its reliabilitywithin an experiment. Third, we ran a classical experiment, the anti-saccade task, to assessits functionality and limitations. This cognitive test compares horizontal eye movementstoward (pro-saccades) or away from (anti-saccades) a target, as a measure of inhibitorycontrol. Our results replicated previous findings obtained with high-quality laboratory ETs.Briefly, higher error rates in anti-saccades compared to pro-saccades were observed, andincorrect responses presented faster reaction times. Our web-ET prototype showed a stablecalibration over time and performed well in a classic cognitive experiment. Finally, wediscussed the potential of this prototype for clinical applications and its limitations forexperimental use