Deep Learning in Mild Cognitive Impairment Diagnosis using Eye Movements and Image Content in Visual Memory Tasks

TL;DR

This study develops a deep learning model using eye-tracking and image data during visual memory tasks to distinguish between healthy individuals and those with mild cognitive impairment, aiming to aid early dementia diagnosis.

Contribution

It introduces a modified VTNet model that incorporates scan paths, heat maps, and image content, demonstrating promising diagnostic accuracy with limited data and challenging conditions.

Findings

Best model achieved 68% sensitivity and 76% specificity.

Model performance is comparable to existing Alzheimer's detection methods.

Heatmap resolution significantly impacts model accuracy.

Abstract

The global prevalence of dementia is projected to double by 2050, highlighting the urgent need for scalable diagnostic tools. This study utilizes digital cognitive tasks with eye-tracking data correlated with memory processes to distinguish between Healthy Controls (HC) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a precursor to dementia. A deep learning model based on VTNet was trained using eye-tracking data from 44 participants (24 MCI, 20 HCs) who performed a visual memory task. The model utilizes both time series and spatial data derived from eye-tracking. It was modified to incorporate scan paths, heat maps, and image content. These modifications also enabled testing parameters such as image resolution and task performance, analyzing their impact on model performance. The best model, utilizing $700\times700px$ resolution heatmaps, achieved 68% sensitivity and 76% specificity. Despite operating under more challenging conditions (e.g., smaller dataset size, shorter task duration, or a less standardized task), the model's performance is comparable to an Alzheimer's study using similar methods (70% sensitivity and 73% specificity). These findings contribute to the development of automated diagnostic tools for MCI. Future work should focus on refining the model and using a standardized long-term visual memory task.