While mental health has been named France’s “National Cause” for 2025, French start-up SuriCog has just won the 2024 Marcel Dassault Prize for innovation in mental health. Its solution uses eye-tracking to study children’s gaze and better detect neurodevelopmental disorders (particularly ASD, ADHD and DYS disorders). Here’s how it works.

SuriCog’s award-winning diagnostic innovation

Open to entrepreneurs, engineers, doctors and scientists in fundamental or clinical sciences, the Marcel Dassault Prize supports the urgent need for innovation and progress in psychiatry. At the end of 2024, it rewarded SuriCog’s device, which enables easy and reliable screening for neurodevelopmental disorders as early as primary school.

For Marc Massonneau, doctor and director of SuriCog, “this prize represents the whole team’s move from the shadows into the light, and it’s an immense source of pride that pushes us to go even further”[1].

An eye-tracking screening tool for neurodevelopmental disorders

In France, 3-4 children in every classroom are affected by a neurodevelopmental disorder, whether a learning disorder (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, dysphasia…), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or an intellectual development disorder.

Despite a rising prevalence of cases, diagnosis still comes too late, leading to growing difficulties at school and socially. Faced with the diagnostic wandering that surrounds these disorders, start-up SuriCog has developed a screening device based on studying children’s gaze.

Using eye-tracking, it measures abnormalities in eye movements, which, according to Marc Massonneau, “are, in that respect, reliable biomarkers, capable of detecting very early on and characterising most of the neurocognitive alterations specific to neurodevelopmental disorders.” For example, a dyslexic child shows long pauses, hesitates and looks back while reading.

EyeBrain Neo, for screening at school

Named “EyeBrain Neo”, SuriCog’s device takes the form of glasses fitted with micro-cameras that capture the child’s eye movements as they are asked to look at standard images on a screen. While it does not constitute a formal diagnosis, the analysis of the results can support the diagnosis made by the doctor and the orthoptist.

Easy to use, SuriCog’s device could be deployed “outside dedicated medical centres, particularly in schools, under the supervision of an orthoptist,” notes Marc Massonneau.

A first pilot study will begin in April 2025 in 4 primary schools in Sélestat, before potentially being extended to the whole Grand Est region in 2025-2026, and then to the whole of France between 2027 and 2030.

“The law of 15 November 2024 is already paving the way, by proposing two screening check-ups at 9 months and 6 years old. And we hope this device can become one of the solutions made available as part of this national strategy,” concludes Marc Massonneau, with enthusiasm.

[1] Quotes from: https://sante.lefigaro.fr/un-dispositif-simple-pour-reperer-autisme-tdah-et-troubles-dys-20241210