MRI: Acquisition of an EyeLink 1000 system to promote oculomotor research at a primarily undergraduate institution

这项NSF主要研究仪器奖支持犹他谷大学（UVU）行为科学系的EyeLink 1000 Plus集成眼动追踪系统（S-R Research）的收购，该大学主要是一所本科院校，第一代、少数民族和非传统学生的比例很高。这种设备的速度、准确性和精确性使行为和认知神经科学实验室能够在许多重要领域进行尖端的眼动追踪研究。例如，眼动追踪系统通过每秒记录多达2000个不同的数据点来检测眼球运动的细微差异，被用于区分儿童注意力缺陷/多动障碍（ADHD）的亚型。另一项研究正在使用一种创新的方法来评估患有阅读障碍的人在阅读时是如何分配注意力的。这项研究的结果将为为患有阅读障碍的初级读者设计阅读干预奠定基础，这种疾病影响了美国10-15%的儿童。购买EyeLink 1000 Plus系统将大大扩大UVU教师和学生的基础研究和应用研究以及研究培训机会，并为UVU和其他机构的教师打开跨学科合作的大门。计划中的研究调查了几个领域的视觉注意：多动症、阅读障碍、比较认知和二维视觉感知。它将有助于大量的研究，通过试图区分不同类型的多动症的眼球运动，来检查非典型人群中眼球运动控制的发展。使用EyeLink 1000 Plus系统记录简单眼球运动任务的高分辨率数据，有可能以比现有方法更清晰的方式识别核心认知障碍。该研究包括六个动眼肌版本的传统神经心理学测试，以检查多动症中常见的执行缺陷：激活、注意力定向、设定转移、空间工作记忆、刺激抑制和反应抑制。这项基础性的注意工作将为其他研究者的临床应用研究提供基础。为了更好地评估患有阅读障碍的个体在阅读时如何分配他们的注意力，患有阅读障碍的儿童和成人被暴露在一系列单句中，这些单句将包括当前未固定的即将到来的单词的动态变化（即，在旁中央凹内）。这项工作的结果将为正常阅读模型的修订提供信息，以适应阅读障碍，并为未来的阅读障碍研究提供创建标准化刺激的建议。该仪器还将使与二维表示中透视感知相关的研究成为可能。长期以来的假设是，正交线驱动观看者眼睛的运动。这项研究通过记录艺术新手和专业观众在观看具有或强或弱深度线索的照片和绘画时的眼球运动来验证这一说法。研究人员将测试一种假设，即体验而不是线条本身引导着眼睛。通过收购EyeLink Plus 1000系统，参与尖端、变革性研究的机会将扩大到女性和少数族裔学生，她们在弗吉尼亚大学参与行为科学的人数很多。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This NSF Major Research Instrumentation award supports the acquisition of an EyeLink 1000 Plus integrated eye tracking system (S-R Research) in the Behavioral Science Department at Utah Valley University (UVU), a primarily undergraduate institution, with a high proportion of first-generation, minority, and non-traditional students. The speed, accuracy, and precision of this equipment is enabling the Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab to conduct cutting-edge eye tracking research in a number of vital areas. For example, the eye tracking system, which detects subtle differences in eye movements by recording up to 2,000 distinct data points per second, is being used to distinguish subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. Other research is using an innovative methodology to assess how individuals with dyslexia deploy their attention while reading. Results of this study will lay a foundation for designing reading interventions for beginning readers with dyslexia, a disorder that affects 10-15% of children in the U.S. The acquisition of the EyeLink 1000 Plus system is significantly expanding both basic and applied research and research training opportunities for UVU faculty and students alike, and opening doors to interdisciplinary collaborations with faculty at UVU and other institutions. The planned research investigates visual attention in several areas: ADHD, dyslexia, comparative cognition, and two-dimensional visual perception. It will contribute to a substantially growing body of research examining the development of oculomotor control in atypical populations by attempting to distinguish eye movements across ADHD subtypes. Using the EyeLink 1000 Plus system to record high-resolution data on simple oculomotor tasks has the potential to identify core cognitive impairments in a more clear-cut manner than existing approaches. The research includes six oculomotor versions of traditional neuropsychological tests to examine common areas of executive deficits seen in ADHD: activation, attentional orienting, set shifting, spatial working memory, stimulus suppression, and response suppression. This basic attentional work will provide a foundation for applied clinical investigations by other researchers. In order to better assess how individuals with dyslexia deploy their attention while reading, children and adults with dyslexia are being exposed to a series of single sentences that will include dynamic changes of upcoming words not currently fixated (i.e., within the parafoveal). The results of this work will inform revisions of models of normal reading to accommodate dyslexia and provide recommendations for creating standardized stimuli for future dyslexia reading research. The instrument will also enable research related to the perception of perspective within two-dimensional representations. The long-held assumption is that orthogonal lines drive the movements of the viewer's eyes. The research is testing this claim by recording eye movements of novice and expert art viewers as they view photographs and paintings with strong or weak depth cues. Researchers will test the hypothesis that experience rather than the lines themselves direct the eyes. The opportunity to participate in cutting-edge, transformative research facilitated by the acquisition of the EyeLink Plus 1000 system will be extended to women and minority students, who participate in high numbers in the behavioral sciences at UVU.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.