Toward a non-linear approach to new-born infants tracking eye movements

L. Madelain, J-C. Darcheville

Laboratoire URECA, UFR de Psychologie, Université de Lille III, BP 149, F-59653 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France. (e-mail:madelain@univ-lille3.fr)

Huberman (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 504, 1981) proposed a mathematical model of eye tracking which explains some of the eye movement dysfunctions observed in pathological subjects. He supposed that the eye behaves as a non-linear forced oscillator. The dynamic of such a system is complex and its behaviour may dramatically vary according to various parameters. First, the driving frequency, i.e. the target's frequency, may impose stable states or chaotic modes depending on its distance from the eye natural oscillation frequency. On the other hand, the model includes two restoring coefficients, a linear one (K) and a non-linear one (L). If the L/K ratio is small, the eye tracking motion is a periodic signal with the same frequency as that of the target. If the ratio is larger, the system may encounter a chaotic regime characterised by broadband noise in the power spectral density. We propose to use that model in order to analyse the tracking eye movements of new-born infants. The examination of power spectra from data obtained from eye movement experiment in new-born infants reveals an intrinsic dynamics which could be attributed to a large L/K ratio. Such analysis allows the study of the intrinsic dynamics of the system and the explanation of the observed dysfunctions in the absence of cognitive underlying processes.