Reliability and correlates of intra-individual variability in the oculomotor system

Abstract

Even if all external circumstances are kept equal, the oculomotor system shows intra-individual variability over time, affecting measures such as microsaccade rate, blink rate, pupil size, and gaze position. Recently, some of these measures have been associated with ADHD on a between-subject level. However, it remains unclear to what extent these measures constitute stable individual traits. In the current study, we investigate the intra-individual reliability of these oculomotor features. Combining results over three experiments (>100 healthy participants), we found evidence for intra-individual reliability over different time points (repeatability) as well as over different conditions (generalization). Furthermore, we correlated oculomotor variability with self-assessed ADHD tendencies, mind wandering, and impulsivity, and found evidence against such correlations. As such, the oculomotor system shows reliable intra-individual reliability, but its use for distinguishing self-assessed individual differences in healthy subjects remains unclear. With our results, we highlight the importance of reliability and statistical power when studying between-subject differences.