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Researchers have developed a new technique to help physicians detect autism spectrum disorder (ASD) faster and more accurately in children.
In a study conducted by the University of Waterloo, researchers explained how children with ASD badyze a person's face differently from a neuro-typical child. Based on the results, the researchers were able to develop a technique that takes into account how a child with ASD moves from one part of the person's face to another.
According to developers, the use of this technology makes the diagnostic process less stressful for children and, combined with existing manual methods, could help doctors better avoid a false positive diagnosis of autism.
Many people suffer from autism and we need an early diagnosis, especially in children. Current approaches to determining if a person is autistic are not really child-friendly. Our method makes diagnosis easier and with less risk of error.
The new technique can be used in all diagnoses of ASD, but we believe that it is especially effective for children. "
Mehrshad Sadria, MSc student in the Waterloo Department of Applied Mathematics
In developing this new technique, the researchers evaluated 17 children with ASD and 23 neuro-typical children. The mean chronological ages of the ASD and neuro-typical groups were 5.5 and 4.8, respectively.
Each participant was shown 44 photographs of faces on a 19-inch screen, integrated with a gaze tracking system. The infrared device interpreted and identified the locations on the stimuli that each child was looking at through the emission and reflection of the iris waves.
The images were divided into seven key areas of interest (AOI) in which the participants focused their gaze: under the right eye, under the left eye, under the left eye, in the nose, in the mouth and other parts of the screen. The researchers wanted to know more about the time spent by participants looking at each area of interest, but also about how they moved their eyes and scanned faces. To obtain this information, the researchers used four different concepts from the network badysis to badess the different degree of importance that children give to the seven areas of interest during exploration. facial features.
The first concept determined the number of other OIs that the participant directly moves his eyes to and from a particular OI. The second concept was to determine the frequency with which a particular OI is involved when the participant moves his eyes between two other OIs as quickly as possible. The third concept is related to the speed with which one can move the eyes of a particular AIO to other AOIs. The fourth concept measured the importance of an information zone, in the context of eye movement and facial scanning, by the number of important information areas with which it shares direct transitions.
Currently, the two most preferred methods of badessing ASDs involve a questionnaire or badessment by a psychologist.
"It's a lot easier for kids to watch something, like the animated face of a dog, than to fill out a questionnaire or to be evaluated by a psychologist," said Anita Layton, who oversees Sadria. and is a professor of applied mathematics. Pharmacy and biology in Waterloo. "In addition, many psychologists face the following challenge: sometimes, behaviors deteriorate over time, so the child may not show signs of autism, but a few years later, whatever something begins to appear.
"Our technique is not just about the behavior or the fact that a child is focusing on the mouth or the eyes – it's about how a child looks at everything."
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