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/
7.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

476 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

369

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.

152

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '25

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

119

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. 

1

u/Phoenyx_Rose Jan 31 '25

Were you always in the same spot for lessons? 

I’ve found that I’m better able to learn and follow along with dance teachers when I stick to one “seat” on the studio. If we break and I go somewhere else, I’ve suddenly forgotten every move we’ve learned, but remember if I can move to my original spot.

I think it’s related to our working memory issues, like how it’s more common for us to forget a thought when leaving a room and having to go back to that place to remember it.