Behavioral Dynamics Between Infants With Visual Loss and Healthy Controls

Overview

An individual senses the world and reflects feedbacks via independent behaviors. Such precise collaboration of the sensory and behavioral systems is fundamental to survival and evolution. When a sensory modality is altered, the behavioral system has the potential to fit in a substitute modality. However, the specific dynamics of human behaviors in response to sensory loss remain largely unknown due to the paucities of representative situations and large-scale samples. Here, the investigators focused on thousands of human infants who suffered varying degrees of visual stimuli deficiency in early stages, while their behavioral systems remained sensitive and thus retained high behavioral plasticity. Having access to this unique population provides an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the effect of diverse visual conditions on the behavioral system.

Full Title of Study: “Comparison of the Behavioral Dynamics Between Visually Impaired Infants and Healthy Controls”

Study Type

  • Study Type: Observational
  • Study Design
    • Time Perspective: Prospective
  • Study Primary Completion Date: October 31, 2017

Interventions

  • Other: Standardized video recording for behaviors
    • A standardized apparatus, scenario, and procedure was applied to record all the behavioral phenotypes with minimized background interference and stimulation. For each standardized procedure, the guardian sits in the chair, holding the infant facing the stage. Each infant is given a few minutes to adapt to the surroundings and to be calm before recording. No hints or simulations are permitted during the entire process. The recording process lasted for over 5 minutes to ensure that behavioral phenotypes could be completely recorded.

Arms, Groups and Cohorts

  • healthy group
    • For the “healthy” group, the visual acuity of both eyes was in the 95% referenced range with no structural abnormalities. The referenced range could be found in the following publication: Mayer, DL., et al. Monocular acuity norms for the Teller Acuity Cards between ages one month and four years. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. 36(3):671 (1995)
  • mildly impaired group
    • The “mildly impaired” group was defined as a VA out of the 95% reference range in at least 1 eye, but the VA of both eyes was in the 99% referenced range with structural abnormalities.
  • severely impaired group
    • For the “severely impaired” group, the VA of both eyes was out of the 99% referenced range or worse than light perception with structural abnormalities.

Clinical Trial Outcome Measures

Primary Measures

  • Behavioral dynamics
    • Time Frame: baseline
    • Eyeball movement (strabismus, nystagmus, and incongruous binocular movement); hand-related behaviors (eye rubbing, pressing, and poking); fixation-related behaviors (compulsive light gazing, compensatory head position, motionless fixation, and poor fixation); and eyelid reaction (frequent blinking, squint, and frown). Five experienced ophthalmologists identified the behaviors independently, and 2 professors with over 10 years of experience in pediatric ophthalmology department were consulted in cases of disagreement.

Participating in This Clinical Trial

Inclusion Criteria

  • Younger than 3 years of age Exclusion Criteria:

  • Any brain and mental illnesses, or other known illnesses that may affect the behavioral patterns

Gender Eligibility: All

Minimum Age: N/A

Maximum Age: 3 Years

Are Healthy Volunteers Accepted: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Investigator Details

  • Lead Sponsor
    • Sun Yat-sen University
  • Provider of Information About this Clinical Study
    • Principal Investigator: Haotian Lin, Principal Investigator – Sun Yat-sen University
  • Overall Official(s)
    • Yizhi Liu, Ph.D, Study Chair, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen Univerisity

References

Long E, Lin Z, Chen J, Liu Z, Cao Q, Lin H, Chen W, Liu Y. Monitoring and Morphologic Classification of Pediatric Cataract Using Slit-Lamp-Adapted Photography. Transl Vis Sci Technol. 2017 Nov 2;6(6):2. doi: 10.1167/tvst.6.6.2. eCollection 2017 Nov.

Japyassu HF, Malange J. Plasticity, stereotypy, intra-individual variability and personality: handle with care. Behav Processes. 2014 Nov;109 Pt A:40-7. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.09.016. Epub 2014 Sep 18.

Clinical trials entries are delivered from the US National Institutes of Health and are not reviewed separately by this site. Please see the identifier information above for retrieving further details from the government database.

At TrialBulletin.com, we keep tabs on over 200,000 clinical trials in the US and abroad, using medical data supplied directly by the US National Institutes of Health. Please see the About and Contact page for details.