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/K3u21 Jan 30 '25

New terms to me: Would that mean better imitation puts them in the ADHD and ASD diagnosis, or would worse imitation be the 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/retrosenescent Feb 01 '25

That makes sense. Proprioception is a common issue for people on the ASD spectrum. Without proprioception, dancing (well) is impossible.