Eye movements are very important, take a look at this article from CBS Minnesota which talks about how a new eye technology can help diagnose brain injuries.
Brain injuries are the No. 1 cause of death and disability in Americans under age 35, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, a new technology that looks at your eyes can help doctors diagnose brain injuries better than any other tool. WCCO’s Natalie Nyhus spoke with a neurosurgeon about how the test works. Concussions are a scary injury because what we see on the outside may not reflect what’s happening on the inside. Doctors have long been able to see how the brain looks.
Now, they can see how it’s working just by tracking eye movement.
“The underlying premise is that when normal people’s eyes are moving, if they are watching television for example, they move with really tight synchrony. When someone has a brain injury, their eyes do not move with tight synchrony. And we can measure that,” Dr. Uzma Samadani said. “We can figure out how badly the eyes are functioning. That tells us something about how well the brain is functioning.”
Dr. Samadani said this technology could soon be used on the sidelines and that we can liken eye tracking and concussions to the way blood tests can diagnose a heart attack.