Vida Groznik (Author), Andrea De Gobbis (Author), Dejan Georgiev (Author), Aleš Semeja (Author), Aleksander Sadikov (Author)

Abstract

Mild cognitive impairment represents a transitional phase between healthy ageing and dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. Early detection is essential for timely clinical intervention. This study explores the viability of smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM) as a non-invasive biomarker for cognitive impairment. A total of 115 participants—62 with cognitive impairment and 53 cognitively healthy controls—underwent comprehensive neuropsychological assessments followed by an eye-tracking task involving smooth pursuit of horizontally and vertically moving stimuli at three different speeds. Quantitative metrics such as tracking accuracy were extracted from the eye movement recordings. These features were used to train machine learning models to distinguish cognitively impaired individuals from controls. The best-performing model achieved an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of approximately 68 %, suggesting that SPEM-based assessment has potential as part of an ensemble of eye-tracking based screening methods for early cognitive decline. Of course, additional paradigms or task designs are required to enhance diagnostic performance.

Keywords

strojno učenje;sledenje očesnim gibom;gladko sledenje;neinvaziven biomarker;kognitivni upad;zgodnje odkrivanje kognitivnega upada;odkrivanje blage kognitivne motnje;demenca;Alzheimerjeva bolezen;machine learning;eye-tracking;smooth pursuit;non-invasive biomarker;cognitive impairment;early detection of cognitive decline;detection of mild cognitive impairment;dementia;Alzheimer's disease;

Data

Language: English
Year of publishing:
Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization: UL FRI - Faculty of Computer and Information Science
UDC: 004.85:616.8
COBISS: 242359043 Link will open in a new window
ISSN: 2076-3417
Views: 154
Downloads: 31
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Other data

Secondary language: Slovenian
Secondary keywords: strojno učenje;sledenje očesnim gibom;gladko sledenje;neinvaziven biomarker;kognitivni upad;zgodnje odkrivanje kognitivnega upada;odkrivanje blage kognitivne motnje;demenca;Alzheimerjeva bolezen;
Type (COBISS): Article
Pages: str. 1-14
Volume: ǂVol. ǂ15
Issue: ǂiss. ǂ14, [article no.] 7785
Chronology: Jul. 2025
DOI: 10.3390/app15147785
ID: 26828197