OBTAINING A QUANTITATIVE MEASURE OF EYE-MOVEMENTS IN HUMAN INFANTS - A METHOD OF CALIBRATING THE ELECTROOCULOGRAM

We have developed a calibration procedure that combines the measurement of the EOG voltage with the concurrent assessment of the actual direction of gaze as revealed by the corneal reflection of a target light. Using this method, we have been able to calibrate the eye-position signal recorded from 2- and 3-month-old infants. Our results show that in young infants 1. (1) the EOG is linearly related to eye position to at least ± 20 deg; 2. (2) the slopes of the calibration lines measured early and late in the same test session were not significantly different at the 0.1 level; 3. (3) at the most eccentric eye position, the calibration was accurate to within ± 1 deg; and 4. (4) an abbreviated calibration at 0 and ± 15 deg, which took less than 2 min, produced essentially the same slope (t-test not significant at the 0.1 level) as a longer procedure that tested at every 5 deg between +20 and -20 deg. © 1990.