Feasibility of exploratory eye movements in patients with neurological and psychiatric diseases

The aim of this study was to elucidate the usefulness of exploratory eye movements (EEMs) in neurological and psychiatric diseases. EEMs were examined with an eye mark recorder while the subjects viewed geometric figures, visual searching tasks or video movie. Mean gazing time (MGT), total number of gazing points (TNGP) and total eye scanning length for gazing points (TESL) were analyzed. As a result, MGT of each patient group was significantly longer than healthy volunteers, and TNGP and TESL of each patient group were also significantly smaller and shorter than healthy volunteers. Therefore, we conclude that EEMs could enable us to search the clinical abnormalities of brain functions in neurological and psychiatric diseases.