The study of the differences between low-functioning autistic children and typically developing children in the processing of the own-race and other-race faces by the machine learning approach.

Journal: Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia
Published Date:

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder which affects the developmental trajectory in several behavioral domains, including impairments of social communication and stereotyped behavior. Unlike typically developing children who can successfully obtain the detailed facial information to decode the mental status with ease, autistic children cannot infer instant feelings and thoughts of other people due to their abnormal face processing. In the present study, we tested the other-race face, the own-race strange face and the own-race familiar face as stimuli material to explore whether ASD children would display different face fixation patterns for the different types of face compared to TD children. We used a machine learning approach based on eye tracking data to classify autistic children and TD children.

Authors

  • Jiannan Kang
    Institute of Electrical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, China.
  • Xiaoya Han
    School of Information Science & Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, China.
  • Jon-Fan Hu
    Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China.
  • Hua Feng
    Clinical Epidemiology and Comparative Effectiveness Program, Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety, Michael E. Debakey VA Medical Center, John P. McGovern Campus, 2450 Holcombe Blvd., Suite 01Y, Houston, TX, 77021, USA.
  • Xiaoli Li
    State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.