Mathematical morphology and applications in automated sunspot detection

This presentation discusses the mathematical morphology and applications in automated sunspot detection

Innovation through Neurodiversity: Diversity is Beneficial

Those experiencing high rapport or strong social connection are more likely to copy each other, or emulate each other’s ideas, either consciously or sub-consciously. In this study, we use this phenomenon to examine whether neurotype match or mismatch impacts degree of imitation in a creative task. We asked 71 participants in neurodiverse pairs (including both autistic and non-autistic participants) and single-neurotype pairs (both autistic or both non-autistic), where one participant builds and one observes, to build the tallest possible tower from dried spaghetti and plasticine. We measured the height of each tower and photographed them to create a stimulus set. We then asked independent raters (n = 351, 62 autistic) to rate towers for degree of similarity. We hypothesised that lower similarity scores would be generated for towers created by people in neurodiverse pairs, showing positive innovation. Results showed towers built in the neurodiverse condition had least similarity, whereas towers built in the autistic and non-autistic conditions were significantly more similar. There was no difference in performance (height of tower) based on condition. Our results are the first to examine creativity within single-neurotype and neurodiverse pairs; they indicate that neurological diversity may be beneficial within a group setting. Subsequent research is required to examine how this interacts with divergent communication styles

Autism and Bilingualism: A Qualitative Interview Study of Parents' Perspectives and Experiences

$\textbf{Purpose}$ Research into how bilingual parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make choices about their children's language environment is scarce. This study aimed to explore this issue, focusing on understanding how bilingual parents of children with ASD may make different language exposure choices compared with bilingual parents of children without ASD. $\textbf{Method}$ Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 17 bilingual parents with a child with ASD and 18 bilingual parents with a typically developing (TD) child. $\textbf{Results}$ Thematic analysis revealed that, in contrast to parents of TD children, parents with a child with ASD expressed concerns that a bilingual environment would cause confusion for their child and exacerbate language delays. This was particularly common for parents of children with lower verbal ability. Parents also identified potential benefits of bilingualism, particularly in terms of maintaining a close and affectionate bond with their child. $\textbf{Conclusions}$ Parents of children with ASD have concerns about bilingualism not present for parents of TD children, and these concerns are greater for parents of children with lower verbal ability. Future research in this area should take into account factors such as parent–child bonds as well as communication and language development.This work was supported by the University of Edinburgh College of Humanities and Social Science Challenge Investment Fund

A review of Websites and Mobile Applications for People with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Towards Shared Guidelines

Many studies show the effective positive impact of using computer technologies to support the lives of users with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), for simplifying interaction with other people, for organising daily activities, for improving relation with family and friends. Despite that, only a restricted part of the current websites is accessible for people with ASD. In this paper, we discuss a set of guidelines that should be followed by designers while developing websites or mobile applications for users with ASD. We review many of the existing websites and applications in order to check which comply with all, or parts of these guidelines. We finally highlight current common limitations and address new challenging research directions. \ua9 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2017

Social gaze in preterm infants may act as an early indicator of atypical lateralization

Rachael Davis - ORCID: 0000-0002-3887-6003 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3887-6003VoR deposited and AM unrestricted on 2022-02-10.Visual field biases have been identified as markers of atypical lateralisation in children with developmental conditions, but this is the first investigation to consider early lateralised gaze behaviours for social stimuli in preterm infants. Eyetracking methods with 51 preterm (33 male, 92.1% White) and 61 term-born (31 male, 90.1% White) infants aged 8-10 months from Edinburgh, UK, captured the development of visual field biases, comparing gaze behaviour to social and non-social stimuli on the left versus right of the screen. Preterm infants showed a significantly reduced interest to social stimuli on the left versus right compared to term children (d =.58). Preterm children exhibit early differential orienting preferences that may be an early indicator of atypical lateralised function.This work is a secondary analysis of data collected from Theirworld Edinburgh Birth Cohort, which is supported by Theirworld (www.theirworld.org) and is carried out in the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh (MRC G1002033).https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13734aheadofprintaheadofprin

Brief report: how adolescents with ASD process social information in complex scenes. Combining evidence from eye movements and verbal descriptions

We investigated attention, encoding and processing of social aspects of complex photographic scenes. Twenty-four high-functioning adolescents (aged 11–16) with ASD and 24 typically developing matched control participants viewed and then described a series of scenes, each containing a person. Analyses of eye movements and verbal descriptions provided converging evidence that both groups displayed general interest in the person in each scene but the salience of the person was reduced for the ASD participants. Nevertheless, the verbal descriptions revealed that participants with ASD frequently processed the observed person’s emotion or mental state without prompting. They also often mentioned eye-gaze direction, and there was evidence from eye movements and verbal descriptions that gaze was followed accurately. The combination of evidence from eye movements and verbal descriptions provides a rich insight into the way stimuli are processed overall. The merits of using these methods within the same paradigm are discussed

Building capacity for rigorous controlled trials in autism: the importance of measuring treatment adherence

Research groups across Europe have been networking to share information and ideas about research on preschool children with autism. The paper describes preliminary work to develop capacity for future multi-site randomized controlled trials of early intervention, with a specific focus on the need to measure treatment adherence where parents deliver therapy. The paper includes a review of randomized and controlled studies of parent-mediated early intervention from two sources, a recent Cochrane Collaboration review and a mapping of European early intervention studies in autism published since 2002. The data extracted focused on methods for describing parent adherence, that is, how and to what extent parents carry out the strategies taught them by therapists. Less than half of the 32 studies reviewed included any measure of parent adherence. Only seven included a direct assessment method. The challenges of developing pan-European early intervention evaluation studies are discussed, including choice of intervention model and of important outcomes, the need for translation of measurement tools and achievement of joint training to reliability of assessors. Measurement of parent-child interaction style and of adherence to strategies taught need further study

Eye-movements reveal attention to social information in autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition in which children show reduced attention to social aspects of the environment. However in adults with ASD, evidence for social attentional deficits is equivocal. One problem is that many paradigms present social information in an unrealistic, isolated way. This study presented adults and adolescents, with and without ASD, with a complex social scene alongside another, non-social scene, and measured eye-movements during a 3-s viewing period. Analyses first identified viewing time to different regions and then investigated some more complex issues. These were: the location of the very first fixation in a trial (indicating attentional priority); the effect of a task instruction on scan paths; the extent to which gaze-following was evident; and the degree to which participants’ scan paths were influenced by the low-level properties of a scene. Results indicate a superficially normal attentional preference for social information in adults with ASD. However, more sensitive measures show that ASD does entail social attention problems across the lifespan, supporting accounts of the disorder which emphasise lifelong neurodevelopmental atypicalities. These subtle abnormalities may be sufficient to produce serious difficulties in real-life scenarios

Experience of clinical services shapes attitudes to mental health data sharing: findings from a UK-wide survey

BACKGROUND: Routinely-collected mental health data could deliver novel insights for mental health research. However, patients’ willingness to share their mental health data remains largely unknown. We investigated factors influencing likelihood of sharing these data for research purposes amongst people with and without experience of mental illness. METHODS: We collected responses from a diverse sample of UK National Health Service (NHS) users (n = 2187) of which about half (n = 1087) had lifetime experience of mental illness. Ordinal logistic regression was used to examine the influence of demographic factors, clinical service experience, and primary mental illness on willingness to share mental health data, contrasted against physical health data. RESULTS: There was a high level of willingness to share mental (89.7%) and physical (92.8%) health data for research purposes. Higher levels of satisfaction with the NHS were associated with greater willingness to share mental health data. Furthermore, people with personal experience of mental illness were more willing than those without to share mental health data, once the variable of NHS satisfaction had been controlled for. Of the mental illnesses recorded, people with depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), personality disorder or bipolar disorder were significantly more likely to share their mental health data than people without mental illness. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that positive experiences of health services and personal experience of mental illness are associated with greater willingness to share mental health data. NHS satisfaction is a potentially modifiable factor that could foster public support for increased use of NHS mental health data in research. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-12694-z