How tracking eye movement could help brain injury patients

New technology that tracks the eye movements of brain injury patients as they watch television could help improve both diagnosis and treatment, scientists believe.

Around one million people in the UK are living with serious brain injuries, which can have a devastating impact on the individual and their families.

As Headway, the UK-wide brain injury charity, points out on its website: Although we all think 'it'll never happen to me', a brain injury can affect anyone at any time.

But a study by NYU Langone Medical Center in New York offers hope that it could be easier in future for doctors to quickly pinpoint the exact area of the brain that is damaged.

This, in turn, could make it easier to develop tailored treatments to help different individuals with traumatic brain injuries on a case-by-case basis.

Twelve people with brain problems that impacted on their ability to control eye movement and 157 healthy people were monitored as they watched a music video or television for 220 seconds.

In healthy patients the number of up and down eye movements was similar to the number from side to side but in the other patients, the ratio was skewered in a way that reflected the particular nerves that were damaged.

There are many possible causes of traumatic brain injury, such as car crashes, falls, accidents and assaults. The severity of the injury will depend on factors such as when skilled treatment by doctors begins and not only on the initial impact.

Brain injury can also be a result of complications arising due to lack of oxygen and rising pressure and swelling in the brain.

Errors in diagnosing or correctly treating issues such as brain abscess, brain aneurysm, encephalitis, epilepsy and hypoxia can have drastic consequences.

View original post here:
How tracking eye movement could help brain injury patients