Oculomotor Behavior as a Biomarker for Differentiating Pediatric Patients With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Age Matched Controls.

Importance: Children have the highest incidence of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in the United States. However, mTBI, specifically pediatric patients with mTBI, are notoriously difficult to detect, and with a reliance on traditional, subjective measurements of eye movements, the subtle but key oculomotor deficits are often missed.

Objective: The purpose of this project is to determine if the combined measurement of saccades, smooth pursuit, fixations and reaction time represent a biomarker for differentiating pediatric patients with mild traumatic brain injury compared to age matched controls.

Vertical smooth pursuit as a diagnostic marker of traumatic brain injury.

Aim: Neural deficits were measured via the eye tracking of vertical smooth pursuit (VSP) as markers of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The present study evaluated the ability of the eye tracking tests to differentiate between different levels of TBI severity and healthy controls.

Methodology: Ninety-two individuals divided into four groups (those with mild, moderate or severe TBI and healthy controls) participated in a computerized test of VSP eye movement using a remote eye tracker.