Predicting Core Characteristics of ASD Through Facial Emotion Recognition and Eye Tracking in Youth

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2020 Jul:2020:871-875. doi: 10.1109/EMBC44109.2020.9176843.

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) with a high rate of comorbidity. The implementation of eye-tracking methodologies has informed behavioral and neurophysiological patterns of visual processing across ASD and comorbid NDDs. In this study, we propose a machine learning method to predict measures of two core ASD characteristics: impaired social interactions and communication, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped behaviors and interests. Our method extracts behavioral features from task performance and eye-tracking data collected during a facial emotion recognition paradigm. We achieved high regression accuracy using a Random Forest regressor trained to predict scores on the SRS-2 and RBS-R assessments; this approach may serve as a classifier for ASD diagnosis.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder* / diagnosis
  • Emotions
  • Face
  • Facial Recognition*
  • Humans
  • Social Communication Disorder*