Constrained Multivariate Functional Principal Components Analysis for Novel Outcomes in Eye-Tracking Experiments.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to experience greater difficulties with social communication and sensory information processing. Of particular interest in ASD biomarker research is the study of visual attention, effectively quantified in eye tracking (ET) experiments. Eye tracking offers a powerful, safe, and feasible platform for gaining insights into attentional processes by measuring moment-by-moment gaze patterns in response to stimuli.

Model selection to achieve reproducible associations between resting state EEG features and autism.

A concern in the field of autism electroencephalography (EEG) biomarker discovery is their lack of reproducibility. In the present study, we considered the problem of learning reproducible associations between multiple features of resting state (RS) neural activity and autism, using EEG data collected during a RS paradigm from 36 to 96 month-old children diagnosed with autism (N = 224) and neurotypical children (N = 69). Specifically, EEG spectral power and functional connectivity features were used as inputs to a regularized generalized linear model trained to predict diagnostic group (autism versus neurotypical).

Clinician-caregiver informant discrepancy is associated with sex, diagnosis age, and intervention use among autistic children.

In some cases, a clinician's perceptions of a child's autism-related behaviors are not the same as the child's caregiver's perceptions. Identifying how these discrepancies relate to the characteristics of the child is critical for ensuring that diagnosis procedures are unbiased and suitable for all children. This study examined whether discrepancies between clinician and caregiver reports of autism features related to the child's sex at birth.

Spatiotemporal Eye Movement Dynamics Reveal Altered Face Prioritization in Early Visual Processing Among Autistic Children.

Background: Reduced social attention-looking at faces-is one of the most common manifestations of social difficulty in autism that is central to social development. Although reduced social attention is well characterized in autism, qualitative differences in how social attention unfolds across time remains unknown.

Methods: We used a computational modeling (i.

Behavioral characteristics of toddlers later identified with an autism diagnosis, ADHD symptoms, or combined autism and ADHD symptoms.

Background: Autism commonly co-occurs with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but less is known regarding how ADHD symptoms impact the early presentation of autism. This study examined early behavioral characteristics of a community sample of toddlers later identified with autism diagnosis, ADHD symptoms, combined autism and ADHD symptoms, or neither condition.

Methods: Participants were 506 toddlers who were part of a longitudinal study of children's behavioral development.

A conditional multi-label model to improve prediction of a rare outcome: An illustration predicting autism diagnosis.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a novel approach using routinely collected electronic health records (EHRs) data to improve the prediction of a rare event. We illustrated this using an example of improving early prediction of an autism diagnosis, given its low prevalence, by leveraging correlations between autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs).

Methods: To achieve this, we introduced a conditional multi-label model by merging conditional learning and multi-label methodologies.

Brief Report: Relationships Between Caregiver-Reported Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors and the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers.

Purpose: Early detection and intervention are associated with improved outcomes for autistic children. Thus, it is important to understand factors influencing early screening tools designed to detect autism. This study examined the relationship between caregiver-reported emotional and behavioral symptoms and children's scores on a commonly used autism screening questionnaire, the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers-Revised with Follow-Up (M-CHAT-R/F).

Parsing evoked and induced gamma response differences in Autism: A visual evoked potential study.

Objective: Electroencephalography (EEG) measures of visual evoked potentials (VEPs) provide a targeted approach for investigating neural circuit dynamics. This study separately analyses phase-locked (evoked) and non-phase-locked (induced) gamma responses within the VEP to comprehensively investigate circuit differences in autism.

Methods: We analyzed VEP data from 237 autistic and 114 typically developing (TD) children aged 6-11, collected through the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials (ABC-CT).

Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome in Young Autistic Children, Children with ADHD, and Autistic Children with ADHD.

Objective: Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome (CDS; previously called Sluggish Cognitive Tempo) refers to a constellation of cognitive and motor behaviors characterized by a predisposition toward mind wandering (cognitive subdomain) and slowed motor behavior (hypoactive). While there are a number of studies linking CDS traits to greater global impairment in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autistic children, there are few studies examining the prevalence and impact of CDS traits in autistic children with co-occurring ADHD (Autistic+ADHD). The current study explored CDS traits in autistic children with and without co-occurring ADHD, children with ADHD, and neurotypical children.

Modeling intra-individual inter-trial EEG response variability in autism.

Autism spectrum disorder (autism) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental condition characterized by early emerging impairments in social behavior and communication. EEG represents a powerful and non-invasive tool for examining functional brain differences in autism. Recent EEG evidence suggests that greater intra-individual trial-to-trial variability across EEG responses in stimulus-related tasks may characterize brain differences in autism.

Autistic Individuals Do Not Alter Visual Processing Strategy During Encoding Versus Recognition of Faces: A Hidden Markov Modeling Approach.

Purpose: Visual face recognition-the ability to encode, discriminate, and recognize the faces of others-is fundamentally supported by eye movements and is a common source of difficulty for autistic individuals. We aimed to evaluate how visual processing strategies (i.e.

Prevalence of bias against neurodivergence-related terms in artificial intelligence language models.

Given the increasing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in many decision-making processes, we investigate the presence of AI bias towards terms related to a range of neurodivergent conditions, including autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We use 11 different language model encoders to test the degree to which words related to neurodiversity are associated with groups of words related to danger, disease, badness, and other negative concepts. For each group of words tested, we report the mean strength of association (Word Embedding Association Test [WEAT] score) averaged over all encoders and find generally high levels of bias.

Autism Caregiver Coaching in Africa (ACACIA): Protocol for a type 1-hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial.

Background: While early autism intervention can significantly improve outcomes, gaps in implementation exist globally. These gaps are clearest in Africa, where forty percent of the world's children will live by 2050. Task-sharing early intervention to non-specialists is a key implementation strategy, given the lack of specialists in Africa.

Sex differences in the age of childhood autism diagnosis and the impact of co-occurring conditions.

Sex differences in the age of autism diagnosis during childhood have been documented consistently but remain poorly understood. In this study, we used electronic health records data from a diverse, academic medical center to quantify differences in the age of autism diagnosis between boys and girls and identify associations between the age of diagnosis and co-occurring neurodevelopmental, psychiatric, and medical conditions. An established computable phenotype was used to identify all autism diagnoses within the Duke University Health System between 2014 and 2021.

Prevalence and nature of prior developmental and medical concerns in toddlers who screen positive for autism in primary care.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children be screened for autism at their 18- and 24-month well-child visit. For children who screen positive for autism, it is unknown whether this usually represents the first time a developmental concern has been raised or if other developmental concerns typically precede a positive autism screen. Such knowledge could help guide providers in how to appropriately convey feedback regarding autism screening.

Early detection of autism using digital behavioral phenotyping.

Early detection of autism, a neurodevelopmental condition associated with challenges in social communication, ensures timely access to intervention. Autism screening questionnaires have been shown to have lower accuracy when used in real-world settings, such as primary care, as compared to research studies, particularly for children of color and girls. Here we report findings from a multiclinic, prospective study assessing the accuracy of an autism screening digital application (app) administered during a pediatric well-child visit to 475 (17-36 months old) children (269 boys and 206 girls), of which 49 were diagnosed with autism and 98 were diagnosed with developmental delay without autism.

The Selective Social Attention task in children with autism spectrum disorder: Results from the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials (ABC-CT) feasibility study.

The Selective Social Attention (SSA) task is a brief eye-tracking task involving experimental conditions varying along socio-communicative axes. Traditionally the SSA has been used to probe socially-specific attentional patterns in infants and toddlers who develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This current work extends these findings to preschool and school-age children.

Autism Caregiver Coaching in Africa (ACACIA): Protocol for a type 1-hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial.

Background: While early autism intervention can significantly improve outcomes, gaps in implementation exist globally. These gaps are clearest in Africa, where forty percent of the world's children will live by 2050. Task-sharing early intervention to non-specialists is a key implementation strategy, given the lack of specialists in Africa.

Automated Video Tracking of Autistic Children's Movement During Caregiver-Child Interaction: An Exploratory Study.

Objective, quantitative measures of caregiver-child interaction during play are needed to complement caregiver or examiner ratings for clinical assessment and tracking intervention responses. In this exploratory study, we examined the feasibility of using automated video tracking, Noldus EthoVision XT, to measure 159 2-to-7-year-old autistic children's patterns of movement during play-based, caregiver-child interactions and examined their associations with standard clinical measures and human observational coding of caregiver-child joint engagement. Results revealed that autistic children who exhibited higher durations and velocity of movement were, on average, younger, had lower cognitive abilities, greater autism-related features, spent less time attending to the caregiver, and showed lower levels of joint engagement.

Addressing the Gap in Research Training in Child Psychiatry and Neurodevelopment.

Psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions in children are common, often co-occur, and can be highly impairing. Moreover, psychiatric disorders that typically do not fully manifest until adulthood, such as schizophrenia, have their roots in early development, with atypical brain and behavioral patterns arising well before a clinical diagnosis is made. The relevance of brain development to improving outcomes of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions underscores the need to cultivate a pipeline of investigators with the necessary training to conduct rigorous, developmentally focused research.

Exploring Complexity of Facial Dynamics in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Atypical facial expression is one of the early symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) characterized by reduced regularity and lack of coordination of facial movements. Automatic quantification of these behaviors can offer novel biomarkers for screening, diagnosis, and treatment monitoring of ASD. In this work, 40 toddlers with ASD and 396 typically developing toddlers were shown developmentally-appropriate and engaging movies presented on a smart tablet during a well-child pediatric visit.