Institute of Human Factors and Ergonomics, College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
Shenzhen Guangming District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shenzhen, China.
Autism Res. 2021 Jun;14(6):1197-1208. doi: 10.1002/aur.2478. Epub 2021 Feb 2.
The present study implemented an objective head pose tracking technique-OpenFace 2.0 to quantify the three dimensional head movement. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typical development (TD) were engaged in a structured conversation with an interlocutress while wearing an eye tracker. We computed the head movement stereotypy with multiscale entropy analysis. In addition, the head rotation range (RR) and the amount of rotation per minute (ARPM) were calculated to quantify the extent of head movement. Results demonstrated that the ASD group had significantly higher level of movement stereotypy, RR and ARPM in all the three directions of head movement. Further analyses revealed that the extent of head movement could be significantly explained by movement stereotypy, but not by the amount of visual fixation to the interlocutress. These results demonstrated the atypical head movement dynamics in children with ASD during live interaction. It is proposed that head movement might potentially provide novel objective biomarkers of ASD. LAY SUMMARY: Our study used an objective tool to quantify head movement in children with autism. Results showed that children with autism had more stereotyped and greater head movement. We suggest that head movement tracking technique be widely used in autism research.
本研究采用了一种客观的头部姿势跟踪技术——OpenFace 2.0，来量化三维头部运动。自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）和典型发育（TD）的儿童在与女对话者进行结构化对话时佩戴眼动仪。我们通过多尺度熵分析计算头部运动的刻板性。此外，还计算了头部旋转范围（RR）和每分钟旋转量（ARPM），以量化头部运动的程度。结果表明，ASD 组在所有三个方向的头部运动中均表现出更高水平的运动刻板性、RR 和 ARPM。进一步的分析表明，头部运动的程度可以通过运动刻板性来显著解释，但不能通过对视对话者的注视量来解释。这些结果表明，ASD 儿童在真实互动中存在异常的头部运动动态。因此，我们提出头部运动可能为 ASD 提供新的客观生物标志物。
