RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Eye-tracking-based assessment of cognitive function in low-resource settings JF Archives of Disease in Childhood JO Arch Dis Child FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health SP 301 OP 302 DO 10.1136/archdischild-2016-310525 VO 102 IS 4 A1 Linda Forssman A1 Per Ashorn A1 Ulla Ashorn A1 Kenneth Maleta A1 Andrew Matchado A1 Emma Kortekangas A1 Jukka M Leppänen YR 2017 UL http://adc.bmj.com/content/102/4/301.1.abstract AB Background Early development of neurocognitive functions in infants can be compromised by poverty, malnutrition and lack of adequate stimulation. Optimal management of neurodevelopmental problems in infants requires assessment tools that can be used early in life, and are objective and applicable across economic, cultural and educational settings.Objective and design The present study examined the feasibility of infrared eye tracking as a novel and highly automated technique for assessing visual-orienting and sequence-learning abilities as well as attention to facial expressions in young (9-month-old) infants. Techniques piloted in a high-resource laboratory setting in Finland (N=39) were subsequently field-tested in a community health centre in rural Malawi (N=40).Results Parents' perception of the acceptability of the method (Finland 95%, Malawi 92%) and percentages of infants completing the whole eye-tracking test (Finland 95%, Malawi 90%) were high, and percentages of valid test trials (Finland 69–85%, Malawi 68–73%) satisfactory at both sites. Test completion rates were slightly higher for eye tracking (90%) than traditional observational tests (87%) in Malawi. The predicted response pattern indicative of specific cognitive function was replicated in Malawi, but Malawian infants exhibited lower response rates and slower processing speed across tasks.Conclusions High test completion rates and the replication of the predicted test patterns in a novel environment in Malawi support the feasibility of eye tracking as a technique for assessing infant development in low-resource setting. Further research is needed to the test–retest stability and predictive validity of the eye-tracking scores in low-income settings.