Trans-diagnostic assessment of neurodevelopment with wearable eye-tracking tech

The Barwon Infant Study is a world-leading birth cohort study of approximately 1,000 children located in Victoria, Australia. It is a multi-organisational research effort comprehensively measuring child health outcomes from pregnancy onwards.

The Barwon Infant Study aims to include objective trans-diagnostic assessments of neurodevelopment in its ‘Primary School Review’. Children are currently taking part in these assessments, with outcomes measured through clinical assessments, parent-reports, behavioral assessments, eye-tracking, vagal tone and neuro-retinal imaging.

Using technological advances – such as wearable eye-tracking technology – the study aims to provide child health researchers with cutting-edge assessments of neurodevelopment. The incorporation of this technology into a population health setting (i.e. >1,000 children) is a unique data-intensive challenge requiring multi-disciplinary research efforts.

To harness this data, we need to extract relevant metrics and create a database of novel, non-invasive neurodevelopmental metrics for child health researchers. Collaborating with MDAP, this project will support the analysis of data obtained from wearable eye-tracking glasses during the ‘Primary School Review’ of the Barwon Infant Study and will create a database of the resulting neurodevelopmental metrics.

This will provide child health researchers, both nationally and internationally, with precise objective assessments of neurodevelopment in a population health setting. This precision phenotyping will also directly bolster current etiological research on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder led by the Neuroepidemiology group at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health.