A study co-authored by a University at Buffalo (UB) undergraduate and presented at the IEEE Wireless Health conference at the National Institutes of Health last month involved the creation of an app for mobile phones, tablets, or computers that tracks eye movement to determine, in less than a minute, if a child is showing signs of autism spectrum disorder.

‘The brain continues to grow and develop after birth. The earlier the diagnosis, the better. Then we can inform families and begin therapies which will improve symptoms and outcome,’ said Michelle Hartley-McAndrew, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Paediatrics and Neurology at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.

‘Although it’s never too late to start therapy, research demonstrates the earlier we diagnose, the better our outcomes,’ said Kathy Ralabate Doody, PhD, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Exceptional Education at SUNY Buffalo State College and a co-author of the study.

The app tracks eye movements of a child looking at pictures of social scenes – for example, those with multiple people. The eye movements of someone with ASD are often different from those of a person without autism. In the study, the app had an accuracy rating of 93.96 per cent.

The study found that photos of social scenes evoke the most dramatic differences in eye movement between children with and without ASD. The eye tracking patterns of children with ASD looking at the photos are scattered, versus a more focused pattern of children without ASD.

Use of the app takes up to 54 seconds, which makes it less intrusive than other tests and valuable with children with short attention spans.

The study included 32 children ranging in age from two to 10. Half of the children had been previously diagnosed with autism in accordance with DSM-V diagnostic criteria. The other half did not have ASD.

Further research will include expanding the study to another 300 to 400 children, which is about the annual enrollment for new evaluations at Children’s Guild Foundation Autism Spectrum Disorder Center at Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo.