Ocular disconjugacy cannot be measured without establishing a solid spatial reference

Abstract

This correspondence points out a need for clarification concerning the methodology utilized in the study "Eye tracking detects disconjugate eye movements associated with structural traumatic brain injury and concussion?, recently published in Journal of Neurotrauma. The authors of the paper state that binocular eye movements were recorded using a single-camera video-oculography technique and that binocular disconjugate characteristics were analyzed without calibration of eye orientation. It is claimed that a variance-based disconjugacy metric was found to be sensitive to the severity of a concussive brain injury and to the status of recovery after the original injury. However, the reproducibility of the paper's findings may be challenged simply by the paucity of details in the methodological description. More importantly, from the information supplied or cited in the paper, it is difficult to evaluate the validity of the potentially interesting conclusions of the paper.