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.
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?
with Research Catalyst scheme. 
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!