Carla A. Wall

Parent-Endorsed Sex Differences in Toddlers with and without ASD: Utilizing the M-CHAT.

Sex differences in typical development can provide context for understanding ASD. Baron-Cohen (Trends Cogn Sci 6(6):248–254, 2002) suggested ASD could be considered an extreme expression of normal male, compared to female, phenotypic profiles. In this paper, sex-specific M-CHAT scores from N = 53,728 18-month-old toddlers, including n = 185 (32 females) with ASD, were examined. Results suggest a nuanced view of the “extreme male brain theory of autism”. At an item level, almost every male versus female disadvantage in the broader population was consistent with M-CHAT vulnerabilities in ASD. However, controlling for total M-CHAT failures, this male disadvantage was more equivocal and many classically ASD-associated features were found more common in non-ASD. Within ASD, females showed relative strengths in joint attention, but impairments in imitation.

The relationship between autism symptoms and arousal level in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder, as measured by electrodermal activity

Electrodermal activity was examined as a measure of physiological arousal within a naturalistic play context in 2-year-old toddlers (N = 27) with and without autism spectrum disorder. Toddlers with autism spectrum disorder were found to have greater increases in skin conductance level than their typical peers in response to administered play activities. In the autism spectrum disorder group, a positive relationship was observed between restrictive and repetitive behaviors and skin conductance level increases in response to mechanical toys, whereas the opposite pattern was observed for passive toys. This preliminary study is the first to examine electrodermal activity levels in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder during play-based, naturalistic settings, and it highlights the potential for electrodermal activity as a measure of individual variability within autism spectrum disorder and early development.

Brief Report: Remotely Delivered Video Modeling for Improving Oral Hygiene in Children with ASD: A Pilot Study.

Children with autism have heightened risk of developing oral health problems. Interventions targeting at-home oral hygiene habits may be the most effective means of improving oral hygiene outcomes in this population. This randomized control trial examined the effectiveness of a 3-week video-modeling brushing intervention delivered to patients over the internet. Eighteen children with autism were assigned to an Intervention or Control video condition. Links to videos were delivered via email twice daily. Blind clinical examiners provided plaque index ratings at baseline, midpoint, and endpoint. Results show oral hygiene improvements in both groups, with larger effect sizes in the Intervention condition. The findings provide preliminary support for the use of internet-based interventions to improve oral hygiene for children with autism.

A smooth pursuit calibration technique

Many different eye-tracking calibration techniques have been developed [e.g. see Talmi and Liu 1999; Zhu and Ji 2007]. A community standard is a 9-point-sparse calibration that relies on sequential presentation of known scene targets. However, fixating different points has been described as tedious, dull and tiring for the eye [Bulling, Gellersen, Pfeuffer, Turner and Vidal 2013].

Autonomously detecting interaction with an affective robot to explore connection to developmental ability

This research employs an expressive robot to elicit affective response in young children and explore correlations between autonomously-detected play, affective response and developmental ability. In this study, we introduce a new, affective interface that combines sound, color, movement and context to simulate the expression of emotions. Our approach exploits social contingencies to emphasize the importance of situational cues in the proper interpretation of affective state. We studied a group of young children at various ages and stages of cognitive development, to: (1) evaluate the efficacy of using captured motion data to autonomously detect physical patterns of play while interacting with a robot, (2) examine relationships between physical play patterns and observed affective response and, (3) explore associations between developmental ability and play or affective response. This pilot study demonstrates that aggregate patterns of physical interaction with a robot are distinguishable through autonomous data collection. Further, statistical analyses demonstrates that developmental ability may be directly related to how a child interacts with and responds to an affective robot.

Modified DBSCAN algorithm on oculomotor fixation identification

This paper modifies the DBSCAN algorithm to identify fixations and saccades. This method combines advantages from dispersion-based algorithms, such as resilience to noise and intuitive fixational structure, and from velocity-based algorithms, such as the ability to deal appropriately with smooth pursuit (SP) movements.

Linking volitional preferences for emotional information to social difficulties: A game approach using the microsoft kinect

Emotional intelligence has been positively associated with social competence. In addition, attentional responses to emotional information have been associated with psychological characteristics related to mental health. In this study, we used the Microsoft Kinect platform as a tool to examine relationships between responses to emotional information in a gameplay environment and psychological factors. 45 typically developing individuals participated in the study, which involved 1) the Kinect game, requiring participants to engage in unprompted volitional whole-body responses to emotional stimuli, and 2) psychosocial assessments such as the Broader Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Principal component analysis revealed patterns of gameplay that were associated with psychological characteristics of individuals. Preference for emotional content in general was associated with fewer social difficulties. The present work offers preliminary support for utilizing Kinect video games to understand emotion orienting and social capabilities, and shows that implicit patterns of preference identified during gameplay may relate to psychological and psychiatric phenomena. While the issues are complex and further research is needed, this work may inform the development of novel approaches to diagnostic and therapeutic tools.

Mapping connections between biological-emotional preferences and affective recognition: An eye-tracking interface for passive assessment of emotional competency

This study presents a proof-of-concept study to assess the prediction of emotional perceptive competency and implicit affective preferences from each other. Predictions are made using linear regression, principal component analysis with linear regression, and support vector machines. Results point to a strong, bidirectional relationship between preference for emotional stimuli and affective competency. This work informs future studies predicting emotion processing abilities in humans and highlights the importance of tailoring interfaces to meet the emotional abilities of the user.