Using Eye Movements To Assess Functional Brain Development in Infants

Shannon Ross-Sheehy of East Tennessee State University in the U.S. will study whether simply monitoring eye movements in infants can be used to measure their neural development. During the first year of life, infant's brains are highly plastic and thus potentially more amenable to the correction of any developmental defects. However, these defects are often only detected in childhood, which may be too late. They will study the changes in eye movement patterns in infants over time at ages four, seven and ten months, and in parallel measure cognitive development to identify links between the two. This method would be relatively inexpensive and quick to perform, and therefore be suitable for use also in developing countries.