Exploring Cognitive Dysfunction in LC Patients: Eye Movement Abnormalities and Frontal-Subcortical Circuits Implications, 2024, Benito-León+

Exploring Cognitive Dysfunction in Long COVID Patients: Eye Movement Abnormalities and Frontal-Subcortical Circuits Implications via Eye-Tracking and Machine Learning
Julián Benito-León; José Lapeña; Lorena García-Vasco; Constanza Cuevas; Julie Viloria-Porto; Alberto Calvo-Córdoba; Estíbaliz Arrieta-Ortubay; María Ruiz-Ruigómez; Carmen Sánchez-Sánchez; Cecilia García-Cena

BACKGROUND
Cognitive dysfunction is regarded as one of the most severe aftereffects following coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Eye movements, controlled by various brain regions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and frontal-thalamic circuits, offer a potential metric for evaluating cognitive dysfunction. We aimed to examine the utility of eye movement measurements in identifying cognitive impairments in long COVID patients.

METHODS
We recruited 40 long COVID patients experiencing subjective cognitive complaints and 40 healthy controls and used a certified eye-tracking medical device to record saccades and antisaccades. Machine learning was applied to enhance the analysis of eye movement data.

RESULTS
Patients did not differ from the healthy controls regarding age, sex, and years of education. However, the patients' Montreal Cognitive Assessment total score was significantly lower than healthy controls. Most eye movement parameters were significantly worse in patients: the latencies, gain, and velocity of visually and memory-guided saccades, the number of correct memory saccades, the latencies and duration of reflexive saccades, and the number of errors in the antisaccade test. Machine learning permitted distinguishing between long COVID patients experiencing subjective cognitive complaints and healthy controls.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest impairments in frontal subcortical circuits in long COVID patients experiencing subjective cognitive complaints. Eye-tracking, combined with machine learning, offers a novel, efficient way to assess and monitor long COVID patients' cognitive dysfunctions, suggesting its utility in clinical settings for early detection and personalized treatment strategies. Further research is needed to determine the long-term implications of these findings and the reversibility of cognitive dysfunctions.


Link | PDF (The American Journal of Medicine)

 

Yes, could be very useful.

 

Vestibular involvement in cognition should also be studied. This is an issue in my case.

 

I think I've mentioned this before...

I got a diagnosis of nystagmus after seeing a neurologist who was very short, and in order to see my eyes with his optical light gadget (?ophthalmoscope?) he got really, really close to me to the point that he was invading my personal space to an excruciating degree. I kept flicking my eyes to see what he was doing. I knew I was going to spoil any possible diagnoses but just couldn't stop myself because I was so embarrassed and uncomfortable. So I ended up with this wrong diagnosis on my medical records.

 

Hohberger has also been studying eye movement in relation to Long-Covid: Virtual reality for assessing stereopsis performance and eye characteristics in Post-COVID, thread can be found here.

 

Cognitive Impacts of Vestibular Disorders

https://vestibular.org/article/coping-support/psychology/cognitive-impacts-of-vestibular-disorders/