Cartoons to identify autism

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Still behind on posts, so don't know if anyone has already posted this.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/03March/Pages/AutismCartoons.aspx

Cartoons to identify autism Behind the Headlines

Brought to you by the NHS Knowledge Service

Tuesday March 31 2009

Autistic individuals sometimes have difficulties with social interaction

Cartoons " could help spot autism " , BBC News has reported. According to the news

service, research now suggests that doctors could pick up autism earlier by

observing how a toddler responds to animations. Babies usually start paying

attention to movement soon after birth and they pick up information from the

cues they see, but children with autism often do not.

Researchers created five simplified 'cartoons', i.e. screen versions of animated

children's games, such as 'peek-a-boo' and 'pat-a-cake', featuring sound and

dots of light to represent human movement. The screen also displayed some

manipulated animations that were upside down and the wrong way around.

Researchers played these animations to 21 two-year-olds with autistic-spectrum

disorders (ASD), 39 children who were developing normally, and 16 who had

developmental problems but were not autistic. Children with autism focused on

movement linked to sound regardless of whether the animation was correct or

manipulated.

This small study may lead to a new technique for diagnosing ASD. As the

researchers say, understanding the processes involved in attention at young

ages, and how this is derailed in autism, may become a useful focus of future

research.

Where did the story come from?

This research was conducted by Dr Ami Klin and colleagues from the Yale Child

Study Center at Yale University School of Medicine in the US. The study was

supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health in the US,

Autism Speaks and the Simons Foundation. The study was published as a letter in

Nature, the peer-reviewed journal.

What kind of scientific study was this?

This was an experimental study in which the researchers explored how children

with autistic spectrum disorder reacted to simplified animations of human

movement. This was based on a previous observation that an infant with autism

did not recognise these animations of biological motion, but was instead highly

sensitive to non-social, physical cues that happened to occur at the same time.

The researchers give some background to the development of motion perception in

children, saying that typically developing human infants notice motion in

biological things, such as human faces and bodies, within the first days of

life, and that this ability is believed to be critical in forming family

attachment.

The researchers also say that the nerve pathways for this perception of movement

overlap with the regions of the brain involved in appreciating basic social

signals (such as facial expression and gaze direction). Paying attention to this

biological motion marks the start of how humans understand the intentions of

others.

In this study, the researchers wanted to see how well children under two years

old paid attention to biological motion, and compared them to children with

autism who do not appear to notice this biological motion in the same way. The

researchers also wanted to explore what other factors might be affecting

autistic children's visual attention.

They created five sets of " point-light animations " consisting of simple

children's games, such as `peek-a-boo', using live actors and motion-capture

technology. This motion-capture process attached points of light to parts of the

actor's body, which were then translated into `cartoons'. These cartoons

represented figures as a number of moving dots, similar to stick men. Audio

recording was included in the motion-capture sessions.

These cartoon point-light animations were presented on one half of a computer

screen, together with the audio soundtrack of the actor's voice. On the other

half of the screen, the same animation was presented, but either shown

upside-down or played backwards from the end of the sequence until its

beginning. Only the single (forward) audio soundtrack was presented to the

children.

The researchers selected 21 children with ASD to compare with 39 typical normal

toddlers and 16 toddlers who were developmentally delayed but not autistic.

They tested the children for levels of audiovisual synchrony (AVS) in all

animations. For example, in a pat-a-cake animation, when the light points hands

collide and a clapping sound occurs, an abrupt change in motion coincides with a

noise. They measured how well the children followed the change in motion and

changes in sound that occurred together.

What were the results of the study?

The researchers show that two-year-olds with ASD did not turn towards the moving

figures in time with audio cues. They are also more easily distracted by

" non-social " action when watching these displays. These non-social actions were

disregarded by the control children, i.e. those without ASD or other

developmental delays.

What interpretations did the researchers draw from these results?

The researchers say that this observation has " far-reaching implications " for

understanding how the brain develops in people with autism.

What does the NHS Knowledge Service make of this study?

This study of development in children, although small, may point the way towards

a new technique for diagnosing autistic-spectrum disorder. Time will tell if

this method can be translated into a useful screening tool or lead to new

treatments.

It should be noted that this study required a complex scientific assessment of

eye movement in children using specialised equipment. A parent would not be able

to determine whether their child had autism by observing the way that they

watched cartoons on television.