1. Autism from a Biometric Perspective
- Author
-
Rajendram V. Rajnarayanan, Raphael D. Isokpehi, Hari H. P. Cohly, and Nataliya Kostyuk
- Subjects
Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Biometry ,Biometrics ,Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis ,autism ,lcsh:Medicine ,Pilot Projects ,Audiology ,Developmental psychology ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Acupuncture ,medicine ,Humans ,Autistic Disorder ,biometric evaluation ,Child ,Organ system ,Communication ,Perspective (graphical) ,lcsh:R ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,medicine.disease ,030205 complementary & alternative medicine ,Autonomic nervous system ,Filter (video) ,Autism spectrum disorder ,Child, Preschool ,Autism ,Female ,Psychology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,electro-photonic emission ,gas discharge visualization (GDV) - Abstract
Purpose:The aim of this pilot study was to test autistic children, siblings and their parents using a biometric device based on the gas discharge visualization (GDV) technique in order to assess their psycho-emotional and physiological functional state based on the activity of the autonomic nervous system. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that the biometric assessment based on GDV will enable us: (1) to evaluate some specific features associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as well as to compare autistic children to their siblings and to controls; (2) to analyze the differences in individual values of parents of autistic children versus parents of normal children. Results: Out of total of 48 acupuncture points present on ten fingertips of both hands and associated to organs/organ systems, autistic children differed significantly from controls (p < 0.05) in 36 (images without filter) and 12 (images with filter), siblings differed significantly from controls (p < 0.05) in 12 (images without filter) and seven (images with filter), autistic children differed significantly (p < 0.05) from siblings in eight (images without filter) and one (images with filter), fathers of autistic children differed significantly (p < 0.05) from controls in 14 (images without filter) and three (images with filter) and mothers of autistic children differed significantly (p < 0.05) from controls in five (images without filter) and nine (images with filter) acupuncture points. Conclusions: All compared groups have shown significant difference on both psycho-emotional (images without filter) and physiological (images with filter) levels. However, the differences between autistic children and controls expressed on psycho-emotional level were the most significant as compared to the other groups. Therefore, the activity of the sympathetic autonomic nervous system is significantly altered in children with autism. The biometric method based on GDV is a promising step in autism research that may lead towards creating a disease profile and identify unique signature/biomarker for autism. Further work should involve more participants in order to augment our findings.
- Published
- 2010