POTS23-007012

Post Date/ Solicitation Issue Date

August 24, 2023 12:00 pm

Closing Response Date

September 3, 2023 6:00 pm

Proposed Award Date

September 7, 2023 12:00 pm

Project Title

Tobii Pro Spectrum Eye Tracker

Contracting Office

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Small Business Size Standard

Small Business

Estimated Period of Performance

N/A

Delivery of Goods

Within four weeks after contract award

Competition Status

Brand Name Only

Single-Sole Source Determination

Tobii Pro Spectrum Eye Tracker listed herein is available from only one source, and competition is precluded for the reasons indicated below.
Tobii eye trackers are the leading noninvasive and restraint-free optical eye tracking in the world. Specifically, the Pro Spectrum eye tracker is the only eye tracker which does not allow our research animals (monkeys) to be restrained in a testing chair or the head to be head-fixed to track eye fixations. Other eye trackers such as Eyelink claim to have head-free eye tracking available. However, the research subject has to have a sticker affixed to its face to aid in eye tracking. While this is feasible for eye tracking in humans, this is not adequate for an unrestrained monkey, as the monkey will remove the sticker if able. For this system to work, the monkey should be in a testing chair so that its hands are restrained away from its face. Tobii system allows for head and restraint-free eye tracking with no sticker needed, and thus is the most adaptable system for the current initiative. As previously mentioned, this flexibility will permit our researchers to collect eye-tracking data much quicker and in more monkeys.

Additionally, the purchase of this specific eye tracker will allow us to expand our research capabilities and collaborative opportunities across the NIMH. In order for us to compare the data that other collaborators have been collected thus far, it is imperative that the equipment be identical. It is our hope that the data collected by our NIMH collaborators as well as our researchers in the LN would allow for substantially more powerful research findings.

Background/Description of Requirement

The NIMH IRP conducts basic research on the neural mechanisms underlying such cognitive functions as perception, memory, decision-making, and emotion in nonhuman primates. A strength of the nonhuman primate (macaque) model for investigating the neural underpinnings of behavior is through the similar visual processing of stimuli in macaques and humans. Eye-tracking of gaze in rhesus macaques is such a valuable tool that it is used across all five sections/units of the Laboratory of Neuropsychology (LN) to examine such questions as responses of neuronal face patches to stimuli and the role of the ventral striatum and amygdala in reinforcement learning. However, current eye trackers used in LN require a monkey to be restrained in a testing chair and head-fixed to track eye fixations. While this is suitable to answer current questions, the use of restraint is incompatible with the initiative of expanding LN research into more naturalistic settings. Because there is no need for head restraint or chair training, the Tobii eye tracker can permit researchers to collect eye-tracking data in more monkeys, more quickly. Furthermore, it will allow new avenues for questions such as: what does a monkey choose to look at when its head is unfixed and it’s freely moving within a testing box or space. This advantage of the Tobii system can lend itself to questions about social behavior and development. Eye-tracking studies have provided pivotal insight into how children with Autism Spectrum Disorder navigate their social world and the potential role of joint attention in social development. Dr. Ryan has previously demonstrated that visual attention to faces as measured in eye-tracking in rhesus macaques is positively correlated with initiating interactions in social groups. One proximate goal for Tobii eye-tracking is to measure sociability within a quantitative framework of opportunistic social viewing in rhesus macaques and assess whether it correlates with, and possibly predicts, pairing success. More distal, long-term goals include combining eye-tracking with behavioral assays and wireless physiological recording to understand the relationship of eye gaze and manual responses in a more naturalistic environment. With a Tobii eye tracking system, we can expand the research capabilities of LN researchers and collaborative opportunities across NIMH in new and exciting ways to inform human health.