A novel screening method makes it easier to diagnose and treat children with autism

(Press-News.org) Researchers have developed a new screening method to diagnose autism, which unlike current methods does not rely on subjective criteria. These results are published in a series of studies in the open-access journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.

The studies, funded by a US$ 650,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, were led by Elizabeth Torres, a computational neuroscientist, and Dimitri Metaxas, a computer scientist, both at Rutgers University, in collaboration with Jorge V. Jose, a theoretical physicist and computational neuroscientist from Indiana University.

Diagnosis

The new technique provides an earlier, more objective and accurate diagnosis of autism, factoring in the importance of sensory and motor impairments. It measures tiny fluctuations in movement and uses a digital real-time map of the subject moving through space and can determine the exact degree to which these patterns of motion differ from more typically developing individuals.

Even in nonverbal children and adults with autism, the method can diagnose autism subtypes, identify gender differences and track individual progress in development and treatment. The method may also be applied to infants.

"This research may open doors for the autistic community by offering the option of a diagnosis at a much earlier age and possibly enabling the start of therapy sooner in the child's development," says José, vice president for research at Indiana University and a professor of cellular and integrative physiology at the university's School of Medicine.

Treatment

In a second paper, the new method is applied for intervention. The researchers say that it could change the way autistic children learn and communicate by helping them develop self-motivation, rather than relying on external cues and commands, which are the basis of behavioral therapy for children with autism.

Torres and her team created a digital set-up that works much like a Wii. Autistic children were exposed to onscreen media – such as videos of themselves, cartoons, a music video or a favorite TV show – and learned to communicate what they like with a simple motion.

"Every time the children cross a certain region in space, the media they like best goes on. They start out randomly exploring their surroundings. They seek where in space that interesting spot is which causes the media to play, and then they do so more systematically. Once they see a cause and effect connection, they move deliberately. The action becomes an intentional behavior," explains Torres.

Researchers found that all 25 children in the study, most of whom were nonverbal, spontaneously learned how to choose their favorite media. They also retained this knowledge over time.

The children independently learned that they could control their bodies to convey and procure what they want. "Children had to search for the magic spot themselves,'' Torres says. "We didn't instruct them.''

Torres believes that traditional forms of therapy, which place more emphasis on socially acceptable behavior, can actually hinder children with autism by discouraging mechanisms they have developed to cope with their sensory and motor differences, which vary greatly from individual to individual.

"A powerful framework"

Prof. Anne M. Donnellan, the director of the USD Autism Institute at the University of San Diego, and editor of the papers, says:

"Based on my in my 40+ year experience in autism, I see this research as truly groundbreaking and bound to have a broad impact across multiple disciplines of brain science."

"It provides a powerful, radical new framework for the assessment and categorization of autism that does not require subjective human assessment, and invites a transformation of current behavioral therapies, from emphasis on instruction driven therapies, to exploratory self-discovery techniques."

It is too early to tell whether the research will translate into publicly available methods for therapy and diagnosis, says Torres. But she is confident that parents of children with autism would find it easy to adopt her computer-aided technique to help their children.

The studies are published as part of a special collection of papers in a Frontiers Research Topic titled Autism: The Movement Perspective.

The co-principle investigators in the study on the clinical side are Dr. John Nurnberger and Dr. Kimberly Stigler from the department of Psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine



INFORMATION:

Contacts
Gozde Zorlu
Communications Officer, Frontiers
gozde.zorlu@frontiersin.org

Ken Branson
Media Manager, Rutgers University
kbranson@ur.rutgers.edu

Mary Hardin
Media Manager, Indiana University
mhardin@iu.edu

About Frontiers

Frontiers is a community driven open-access publisher and research networking platform. Launched and run by scientists since 2007, and based in Switzerland, Frontiers empowers researchers to advance the way science is evaluated, communicated and shared in the digital era. Frontiers joined the Nature Publishing Group family in 2013.

The "Frontiers in" series of journals published 5,000 peer-reviewed articles in 2012 and is one of the largest and fastest growing open-access publishers worldwide.

Frontiers is supported by over 30,000 editors and reviewers and receives 5 million monthly views. Frontiers has formed partnerships with international organizations such as the Max Planck Society and the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). For more information, please visit: http://www.frontiersin.org

Note to Editors

A video showing the therapeutic approach is available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arVAaD0ZV_0

For online articles, please cite Frontiers in Neuroscience as the source of publication and include links to the papers – see below.

Title: Give spontaneity and self-discovery a chance in ASD: Spontaneous peripheral limb variability as a proxy to evoke centrally driven intentional acts
Journal: Frontiers in Neuroscience
DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2013.00046
Link: http://www.frontiersin.org/Integrative_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnint.2013.00046/abstract

Title: Autism: The Micro-Movement Perspective
Journal: Frontiers in Neuroscience
DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2013.00032
Link: http://www.frontiersin.org/Integrative_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnint.2013.00032/abstract