Eye movements in children with Sensory Processing Difficulties

September 3, 2024September 3, 2024 Timothy Hodgson General news, Public Engagement, research, Uncategorized ADHD, autism, DCD, developmental psychology, eye movements, oculomotor, saccades

Over the last few years we have been collaborating with local occupational therapist Annabelle Hippisley using the Eyelink 1000 eye tracker to examine eye movement control in some of the children she sees in her practice.

Therapeutic approaches in occupational therapy are strongly influenced by the work of American psychologist Jean Ayres, who suggested that difficulties experienced by children in conditions such as Autism are due to problems integrating sensory information. This inspired a therapeutic approach which emphasises developing sensorimotor coordination via playful activities such as ball catching, swings and obstacle courses.

Despite its influence in practice, Ayres ideas have received little attention from university academic researchers. As a step towards addressing this, some of Annabelle’s clients have been taking part in research using our Eyelink eye tracker to play eye movement “games” which measure the speed and accuracy of different types of movement, including saccades (rapid eye movements used to shift the eyes from one object to another), smooth pursuit (keeping eyes fixed on moving object) and sustained fixation (keeping eyes stationary).

A research paper reporting the detailed findings of the research is currently under review, but in the meantime we would like to say thank you to all the children and parents who took part and watch this space for more details on the findings and implications of the research!

*Saccadic eye movement tasks used in research*

Cat’s eyes!

May 15, 2023September 19, 2024 Timothy Hodgson General news, Public Engagement cats, visual perception

This week I gave a talk to staff at the Cats Protection League as part of National Learning At Work Week entitled “The eye and the brain: Can you believe what you see?”.

They contacted me as they wanted to hear more about the role of the brain in vision (see my youtube video for a bite size version). They really did insist that they didn’t want me to talk about cats, which was a relief as cats are not a subject in which I am an expert! Nevertheless, I couldn’t help doing a bit of research in advance and here are few things I found out about cats and vision:

Colour vision in cats isn’t very well understood. It seems they have far fewer colour sensitive cone cells in their retina than us, suggesting they perceive colours far less intensely than we do.
The spooky shine in cat’s eyes at night is due to a layer behind the retina called the tapetum lucidum. It reflects light back onto the light sensitive rods and cone cells and forms part of the choroid layer of the retina (we have a choroid layer but apparently not a tapetum lucidum).
One of the founding influences on the cat welfare movement in the early 20thC was the artist Louis Wain (subject of the recent film the Electrical Life of Louis Wain). Whilst preparing the talk I kept thinking about the amazingly intricate and bizarrely colourful pictures of cats he produced later in life (see below). It made me wonder whether he experienced hallucinatory phenomena similar to those found in Charles Bonnet syndrome. His pictures certainly suggest his brain perceived the world very differently to most other people.

I included plenty of visual illusions and audience participation bits in my talk, so I hope everyone at CPL enjoyed it. I hope I might have at least made you think more about the role that the human (and cat) brain plays in conjuring up our perceptions!

Parkinsons Research Update

March 10, 2018March 10, 2018 Timothy Hodgson General news, Parkinsons, Public Engagement, research

This week is the AGM of the Lincoln and District Parkinsons group of which I am proud to be honorary president. I want to thank everyone from the local group and beyond who has participated in our eye tracking studies over the last few years. I am currently writing reports for research journals about the results but here are some of the interesting findings:

Memory Game Study: We asked people to play a memory game and used the eye tracker to measure eye movements while they searched for tokens hidden in boxes on a screen. We found that people with Parkinsons looked ahead and looked back less with their eyes when playing the game. We think Parkinsons affects planning ahead and keeping track of where you’ve already been when you’re searching for something.

card game pic — Where people look in the card guessing game

Guessing Game Study: We also asked people to play a card guessing game while they wore an eye tracking helmet. They had to describe the thing that was on the card (e.g. “elephant”; “apple” etc.). When someone with Parkinsons was describing, we found players got through less cards in the allotted time, but people with Parkinsons were just as good at guessing when someone else was describing.

People without Parkinsons made eye contact to different degrees when playing the guessing game. We think the results show that other people making eye contact might help someone with Parkinsons get their words out better, as well as helping the other person to listen.

Please get in touch via e-mail or this blog page to let me know if you have any questions and let me know what you think about the findings?

Positively Parkinsons @ Lincoln

November 13, 2017March 10, 2018 Timothy Hodgson Conferences, Impact, Parkinsons, Public Engagement

This Friday 17th November we will be hosting Lincoln’s first Positively Parkinsons event in conjunction with Parkinsons UK and the Lincoln and District Parkinsons group.
The event provides an opportunity to find out more about the condition and meet people with Parkinsons. It will include sessions in which you can find out about a day in the life of a Parkinsons nurse as well as a talk from former Lincoln psychology student Jade Pickering who is now carrying out research into Parkinsons disease as part of her PhD at the University of Manchesters BEAM research group.

The event takes place in the Sarah Swift building on the main University of Lincoln campus from 10-3pm. Members of the public, Lincoln staff and students are welcome to join us. To book your place or find out more contact Dave Swindells (dswindells@parkinsons.org.uk).

Public Engagement Project Success!

October 10, 2017March 10, 2018 Timothy Hodgson Impact, Public Engagement, research

Over the next 12 months I will be busy as co-investigator on a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as part of the Public Engagement with Research Catalyst scheme.

Led by School of History and Heritage’s Prof Carenza Lewis (of Time Team fame), the PEARL (Public Engagement for All in Research at Lincoln) project aims to enrich the culture of public engagement in research across the university, putting it on an equal footing with research and teaching.

Public engagement with research seeks to inform, inspire, upskill and enrich individuals and communities. PEARL will establish Lincoln as a model for other universities in the extent to which it values and supports staff and student public engagement activity.

The project will initially seek views of staff and students to evaluate perceptions, strengths and weaknesses of how the University currently e EPSRC ngages non-academics in its research, but there will also be opportunities to get more hands on with PEARL including funding for public engagement events, a conference and awards so watch this space!

Timothy Hodgson – Cognitive Neuroscience

Research into vision, eye movements and cognitive function

Public Engagement