Osaka: A group of researchers from Osaka University developed a user-friendly non-invasive system for precisely measuring children's eye movement at the Molecular Research Center for Children’s Mental Development, Pediatrics, Osaka University Hospital. In a controlled study of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and typically developing (TD) children by making use of this measurement system, this group found that children with ADHD had abnormalities in brain function responsible for controlling rapid eye movement (saccadic eye movement). This result suggests that children with ADHD have some kind of abnormalities in the process or function of the volitional maintenance of eye-movement to fixate so that they are not good at staring at something by focusing on a fixed point.
This group's discovery will be used as a diagnosis tool for adults and infants as well and lead to the establishment of a biomarker for determining the effectiveness of drug therapies and behavioral therapies for such disorders. The development of objective and quantitative methods for diagnosis and evaluation by bio-measurement will have a great impact on society and have more meaning in that it enhances people's understanding about persons with these disorders which are not obvious at first glance.
