Smart tablet-based gameplay identification of preschool children with autism : a replication study with machine learning data analytics improvements

Background: It has been proposed that one of the early markers of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a disruption in intentional movement evident from early childhood. Evidence suggests disruption to motor timing and integration may underpin the disorder, providing a new potential marker for its identification. In earlier work, we demonstrated machine learning analysis of children’s movement patterns during smart tablet gameplay identified ASD with 83% sensitivity and 85% specificity (Anzulewicz, Sobota and Delafield-Butt, 2016). Objectives: In this study, we sought to test the original performance accuracy with more generalised, new data. And we sought an iterative improvement on the machine learning data analytics to simplify and further generalise the models. Overall we aimed to achieve an accessible, computational identification of ASD in young children by smart tablet gameplay. Methods: The original study of 37 children 3-6 years old with ASD and 45 children typically developing (TD) was augmented with a new dataset of 118 children with ASD and 420 TD children. In addition, 26 children 3-6 with another neurodevelopmental disorder that was not ASD was included. Feature selection was reduced by recursive feature selection and removal of low variance and high within-group correlations. New machine learning algorithms were trained on the new dataset (n=564), and these models applied to the original dataset (n=82) to test for generalisation. Results: Dimensionality was reduced from 262 kinematic and descriptive metric features of children’s gameplay patterns to 49 features. Ten repetitions of a ten-fold cross-validation procedure performed on the new dataset (n=564) identified children with ASD from their TD counterparts with 87% sensitivity and 85% specificity. Differentiation of OND from their TD counterparts was comparable, but with low confidence. Finally, we tested the models produced on the original study dataset (n=82). The model performed 83% sensitivity and 82% specificity accuracy, replicating the original finding. Conclusions: This study produced new machine learning models for the identification of ASD from TD children on a large dataset with comparable performance to the first study, and with reduced feature selection. Moreover, we replicated the findings of our previous study with these new algorithmic models, tested on those original data and without prior training on those data. We consider this strong verification of the principle of machine learning data analytics in the successful, and potentially clinically useful early identification of ASD in young children. The basis of these features on calculations of motor kinematics supports the view movement differences are a fundamental feature of ASD that may be subtle to the eye, but significantly associated computationally

Czy reprezentacje numeryczne są niezależne od modalności? Badanie z udziałem widzących czytających brajlem

Meta-modalna teoria funkcjonalnego podziału kory mózgowej zyskuje wiele uwagi ze strony współczesnej neuronauki. W myśl tej teorii korę mózgową można podzielić na niezależne od modalności obszary wyspecjalizowane w rozwiązywaniu zadań bazujących na wspólnych reprezentacjach. Wiele behawioralnych paradygmatów badawczych jest wykorzystywanych do badania niezależnych od modalności mechanizmów rozpoznawania przedmiotów czy czytania. W tej pracy skupiono się na badaniu podłoża reprezentacji numerycznych, wykorzystując paradygmaty behawioralne umożliwiające badanie efektu dystansu numerycznego. Przeprowadzono eksperymenty z udziałem osób widzących, które ukończyły 9-miesięczny kurs czytania brajlem. Wykorzystano paradygmat prymowania numerycznego, w którym bodźce wizualne prymowane były przez bodźce dotykowe. Wstępne wyniki sugerują, że czytający dotykowo wykazują podobne wzorce odpowiedzi jak w badaniach wykorzystujących wyłącznie bodźce dotykowe. Co więcej, zaobserwowano interesującą interferencję efektów uzyskiwanych przy prezentacji abstrakcyjnych bodźców dotykowych (cyfr brajla) przed bodźcami wzrokowymi (cyframi arabskimi) i zaprezentowano kilka hipotez potencjalnie wyjaśniających ten fenomen.The notion that the brain is organised into task-specific and modality-independent brain networks is a lively debated topic in neuroscience. Several behavioural paradigms were developed to study modality independence of different cognitive abilities, such as object recognition or reading. In this work, the nature of the numerical representation is examined from the perspective of the metamodal theory of the cortical organisation. Particularly, the presence of behavioural effects related to numerical distance effect was investigated.Experiments using cross-modal, tactile to visual numerical priming task were conducted with participants who graduated from a 9-month Braille reading course. Preliminary results indicate that sighted Braille readers exhibit patterns of responses quite similar to those observed in previous studies using solely visual stimuli. However, an interesting intersection of effects was observed in the condition using abstract tactile digits as primes for Arabic digits. These findings are discussed and several explanatory mechanisms are proposed

System śledzenia postępów w terapii zaburzeń ze spektrum autyzmu - badanie doświadczeń uzytkownika

Potrzeba skutecznych, opartych na dowodach interwencji terapeutycznych dla dzieci z zaburzeniami ze spektrum autyzmu (ASD) skłania do badań nad narzędziami do pomiaru postępów w terapii, które umożliwiają ocenę jej skuteczności. W pracy przedstawiono proces tworzenia gier na tablety, wykorzystywanych w pomiarze wzorców ruchowych. Ponieważ dzieci z ASD często przejawiają zaburzenia motoryczne lub nietypowe wzorce ruchowe, pewne mierzalne parametry ruchu dziecka mogą stanowić predyktory dla postępu w rozwoju motorycznym i poznawczym. Dane zbierane są podczas gry, zatem aby uzyskać wystarczającą liczbę wzorców do analizy konieczne jest by dziecko przejawiało zaangażowanie w interakcji z tabletem. Celem tej pracy jest zaprojektowanie gier, które byłyby dla dzieci atrakcyjne i angażujące. Wykorzystane metody badawcze (wywiad, obserwacja, kwestionariusz) pozwoliły również na analizę obecnie wykorzystywanych i pożądanych systemów śledzenia postępów w terapii. Rezultatem pracy jest zestaw pięciu gier oraz rekomendacje dla wykorzystania z dziećmi w różnym wieku, z dziećmi wysoko funkcjonującymi oraz z zaburzeniami współwystępującymi.The need for quality, evidence-based interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) motivates the research on numerous assessment tools that support efficacy studies. In this thesis, we present a process of the development of tablet games used for examination of movement patterns (MP). Based on that motor disturbance or untypical movement patterns often occur in children with autism it's hypothesised that certain movement parameters can be used as predictors of progress in motor and cognitive development. The data is being gathered during the gameplay and to obtain enough MPs for the analysis, a child has to express engagement in the play. The objective of this study was to design the games so they ensure an enjoyable experience for a child. Various methods of researching the UX were used (interview, observation, survey) in order to get a broader perspective on current and desirable therapy monitoring systems. As a result, five games are proposed along with recommendations for use with children of different ages, highly-functioning or with comorbid disorders

Development and validation of Emotional Climate Change Stories (ECCS) stimuli set

This repository contains supplementary materials (data and code) associated with the development of the Emotional Climate Change Stories (ECCS) dataset

A shared code for Braille and Arabic digits revealed by cross-modal priming in sighted Braille readers

Quantities can be represented by different formats (e.g. symbolic or non-symbolic) and conveyed via differentmodalities (e.g. tactile or visual). Despite different priming curves: V-shape and step-shape for place and sum-mation coded representation, respectively, the occurrence of priming effect supports the notion of differentformat overlap on the same mental number line. However, little is known about tactile-visual overlap of sym-bolic numerosities i.e. Braille numbers to Arabic digits on the magnitude number representation. Here, in apriming experiment, we tested a unique group of sighted Braille readers to investigate whether tactile Brailledigits would activate a place-coding type of mental number representation (V-shape), analogous to othersymbolic formats. The primes were either tactile Braille digits presented on a Braille display or number wordspresented on a computer screen. The targets were visually presented Arabic digits, and subjects performed anaming task. Our results reveal a V-shape priming function for both prime formats: tactile Braille and writtenwords representing numbers, with strongest priming for primes of identical value (e.g."four"and"4"), and asymmetrical decrease of priming strength for neighboring numbers, which indicates that the observed priming isdue to identity priming. We thus argue that the magnitude information is processed according to a sharedphonological code, independent of the input modality

Beyond Climate Anxiety: Development and Validation of the Inventory of Climate Emotions (ICE): a Measure of Multiple Emotions Experienced in Relation to Climate Change

There is a growing research interest in the affective aspects of climate change and their links with pro-climate engagement. Yet, psychometrically valid instruments assessing the wide panorama of emotional responses to climate change are limited. Here, we report on the development and validation of the Inventory of Climate Emotions (ICE), a self-report measure of multiple emotions experienced in relation to climate change. Based on qualitative exploration, literature review, along with expert and target population content validation, we operationally defined a spectrum of emotional responses to climate change which guided the formulation of a large initial item pool. High psychometric quality of the ICE was secured in two quantitative studies conducted in samples from the general population in Poland. In Study 1, based on exploratory factor analysis, we indicate that a broad range of emotional responses to climate change can be viably captured by 8 underlying factors: anger, contempt, enthusiasm, powerlessness, guilt, isolation, anxiety, and sorrow. This structure was corroborated in Study 2 with confirmatory factor analysis on an independent sample. Across studies, we provide evidence for the reliability and validity of the ICE in terms of internal consistency of the subscales and convergent, discriminant and concurrent validity. We also show the functionality of the ICE in the context of pro-climate behaviour. The ICE provides an integrative approach to emotional responses to climate change and it can be used to further the understanding of the complex role of emotions in climate change engagement