Vision, spatial cognition and intellectual disability

• Eye movements recording combine assessing and understanding of spatial cognition.
• Spatial orientation emerges from adaptive strategies prone to modulations.
• People with intellectual disability are known for anomalous visual movements.
• These anomalies are a synthetic signature of deficits and compensations.
• Working hypothesis: rehabilitation strategies can improve visuo-cognitive efficacy.

Vision is the most synthetic sensory channel and it provides specific information about the relative position of distant landmarks during visual exploration. In this paper we propose that visual exploration, as assessed by the recording of eye movements, offers an original method to analyze spatial cognition and to reveal alternative adaptation strategies in people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Our general assumption is that eye movement exploration may simultaneously reveal whether, why, and how, compensatory strategies point to specific difficulties related to neurological symptoms. An understanding of these strategies will also help in the development of optimal rehabilitation procedures.