Researchers working on AI system to quickly diagnose autism

"The University of Southern Queensland in Australia has disclosed that a global research team is developing a unique classification system for the early detection of autism in children.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

In a study, whose findings were published in the journal Complex & Intelligent Systems, the researchers examined and tested two sets of nonlinear, highly distinctive features of EEG signals extracted from children aged four to 13. One set belonged to 40 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), while the other set was extracted from 37 children without any neurodevelopmental disorders. They were able to identify three distinct combinations of the EEG signal features that were "strongly predictive" of autism.

WHY IT MATTERS

In Australia, more than 150,000 children are estimated to have autism. At present, no medical test or blood test is available to make a definitive diagnosis of the disorder. It can take years before a doctor can diagnose children with ASD by examining a child's behaviour and development over a period of time.

According to a media release, the researchers are now embarking on the next stage of their study where they will gather more data to test and develop a cloud-based system to automatically detect autism in a single brain scan ..." Lire la suite