DINCA
Digital NeuroCognitive Assessment in Infants (DINCA)
The DINCA project (2018-2020) encompasses seven multi-professional and interdisciplinary subprojects. Five of these include clinical studies with patients, with all subprojects constituting a unified whole. As a result, DINCA offers a quantitative and easy-to-scale testing battery that is ideal for screening and treatment follow-up and that covers the entire first year of life. By way of concrete advancements, DINCA mobilizes the latest research by developing two new methods. One of these is a smart playsuit with multiple channels that measure the muscle coordination of a child during normal spontaneous action. The other is a precognitive SRT test in which equipment based on eye movement camera quantifies the saccadic reaction time (SRT, combination of visual attention and reaction capacity) of the child.
DINCA recruits both normally developing children as well as children belonging to various risk groups. The DINCA team includes a range of medical specialists, psychologists, mathematicians, and physicists from the University Hospital of Helsinki. DINCA also collaborates with the Aalto University, University of Tampere, and Istituto Stella Maris (Pisa). The project is supported by the foundation of pediatric diseases, Lastentautien tutkimussäätiö.