Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease classified as neurodegenerative because it can be associated with the more or less progressive development of neurological symptoms and cognitive deficits. In recent years, various studies have started to investigate eye movements in relation to cognitive impairment in persons with MS by means of eye-tracking equipment. However, the high heterogeneity of the paradigms used in different studies, as well as the different methodologies included, makes it difficult to provide a complete and precise picture of this important research and clinical issue. The purpose of the present in-depth scoping review was to map the existing literature in this field to determine which metrics may be relevant when dealing with the neurocognitive profile of people with MS. From the analyses of the included studies, the anti-saccade latency and errors were the most frequently proposed metrics. Correlation analyses between these metrics and cognitive measures showed significant associations between them, calling for a deeper investigation of this promising research and clinical field. The results of the present scoping review strongly suggest that eye tracking may play a crucial role in clinical practice during the early detection of neurocognitive disorders. There is a great need for primary research that addresses the full complexity of MS in its different phenotypes and the disease-related variables from a multidisciplinary perspective. Future research should clarify whether oculomotor dysfunction in MS follows or precedes cognitive deficits.

Objective: This pilot study investigated mental health professionals’ attitudes towards remote psychological consultations and internet-based interventions. Methods: An online survey in Italian and English was administered to a sample of 191 psychologists and psychotherapists to collect detailed information about their professional experience providing online psychological interventions a year and a half after the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Results: The results did not reveal a statistically significant association between the participants’ theoretical approaches and the number of patients treated via the online modality. Overall, most of the participants found advantages to the online setting but also noted critical issues regarding privacy and the ease of integrating new technology into their clinical practice. Conclusions: According to the participants, despite the challenges that must be addressed, telehealth is a viable psychological therapeutic option that is destined to grow in importance in the near future.

Objective: The objective of this scoping review is to understand whether eye tracking can be a useful method for studying multiple sclerosis (MS) and, if so, how. Introduction: Eye tracking is an innovative technology used as a promising digital biomarker for the early detection of abnormal visual patterns in several neurological disorders. Some studies have shown how eye movement alterations can be associated with MS, but there are significant differences in methodology between the available studies. Inclusion criteria: Studies that fulfil the following criteria regarding the participants, concept, and context framework will be included: recruitment of MS patient over 18 years of age, any eye-tracking paradigm, any context. No restrictions on study design, publication type, or data will be applied at the very beginning of the literature search.Methods: This scoping review will be performed in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology. The PubMed, Cochrane Central, EMBASE, Scopus, and Web of Science databases will be searched up to October 2024. Additional papers will be detected by searching the grey literature and reference lists of all pertinent studies included in the review. The decision to include or exclude studies will be made by two reviewers working independently. The reviewers will undertake a thorough examination of all titles, abstracts, and full-text studies. The research team will endeavour to extract the characteristics of the included studies through a data collection form that has been created for this purpose. At the conclusion of the process, a tabular and narrative summary will be prepared to present the information gathered.Keywords: Eye movements, Multiple Sclerosis, Digital biomarker, Review, Protocol

Background: Cognitive decline in nursing homes is often under-recognized. Access to specialized neuropsychological assessments, which involve detailed evaluations of how the brain influences behavior and thinking, is often limited. In this study, we examined the feasibility of administering an ecological reading task, involving reading activities that imitate real-life situations, in a real-world nursing home setting. We also explored whether reading-derived linguistic metrics and measures of language use during reading, along with an eye-tracking component that monitored participants’ eye movements, were associated with cognitive impairment. Methods: This cross-sectional observational pilot study included 60 nursing home residents aged 65 years or older, classified as either cognitively impaired (CI, n = 30) or healthy control (HC, n = 30) based on neuropsychological profiles and clinical evaluations. All participants completed the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Barthel Index, and Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire (CRIq). The reading task involved reading aloud a 177-word Italian passage followed by eight comprehension questions. Primary outcomes were total reading errors (TRE), total comprehension errors (TCE), and words per minute (WPM). Eye-tracking data (Gazepoint GP3, 60 Hz) were available for a subsample with usable calibration and validation data (CI: n = 26; HC: n = 24). Analyses included descriptive comparisons, covariate-adjusted generalized linear models, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses, and partial Spearman correlations. Results: All 60 participants completed the task. Usable audio recordings were obtained for everyone, and usable eye-tracking data were available for 50 participants. The CI group showed higher TRE and TCE, lower WPM, and longer reading times compared with the HC group. In models adjusted for gender, age, education, GDS, Barthel Index, and CRIq, TCE showed the strongest association with CI status (odds ratio [OR] = 11.108, 95% CI 2.662–246.186, p = 0.024), and TRE was also associated with CI status (OR = 1.238, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.054–1.629, p = 0.045). ROC analyses showed high areas under the curve (AUCs) for TCE (0.982), TRE (≈0.95), and audio-based WPM (0.936). In the eye-tracking subsample, timing-related measures also showed good discrimination (AUC = 0.960 for eye tracking [ET]-WPM; 0.942 for ET-Total Reading Time), whereas conventional first-order oculomotor metrics did not differ significantly between groups. Conclusions: An ecological reading task was feasible within a nursing home setting. It generated reading-derived linguistic metrics linked to cognitive impairment and broader cognitive-functional status. Measures related to comprehension, overall reading error load, and reading speed were shown to be useful as digital linguistic markers.