r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jan 30 '25

Neuroscience A low-cost tool accurately distinguishes neurotypical children from children with autism just by watching them copy the dance moves of an on-screen avatar for a minute. It can even tell autism from ADHD, conditions that commonly overlap.

https://newatlas.com/adhd-autism/autism-motion-detection-diagnosis/
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u/Stephen_Hero_Winter Jan 30 '25

The abstract says that kids with ASD performed worse at imitation, while ADHD and neurotypicals performed equally well.

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '25

I cannot square dance for the life of me. Now i am diagnosed.

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u/Special-Garlic1203 Jan 30 '25

I am diagnosed with ADHD and am suddenly uncomfortably aware of the numerous times I was completely incapable of mirroring a group led physical activity with a leader at the front. 

I know I have solid spacial reasoning. Like in tests where they ask you what a shape would look like at a different angle, I can do those. 

But put a human being in front of me saying "do what I do" and my brain short circuits. 

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u/RedPlaidPierogies Jan 31 '25

Also ADHD here. I'm SO bad at dancing. I really love community theater, and am usually pretty good at the acting and singing parts of the audition. The dance part absolutely is where I fail and fail hard.

I've tried to take multiple beginner dance classes. I do okay for the first 2-3 lessons but then it's too fast paced. So I just keep taking the same beginner class over and over.