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

804

u/AllanfromWales1 MA | Natural Sciences | Metallurgy & Materials Science Jan 30 '25

Does it work for adults? I was never tested as a child (back in the 1960s) but have long suspected..

163

u/ZoeBlade Jan 30 '25

Here, try some of these tests as a rough guide. You can also browse autistic subreddits and see if they seem more like your kind of people -- there tends to be a bit of communication friction between many autistic and non-autistic people, so if you get along with us better, that itself can be a clue. Similarly, if you already have autistic friends, that's probably a sign.

2

u/retrosenescent Feb 01 '25

I score very low on autistic tests (very allistic) yet have always preferred the company of autistic people because I find them straightforward, honest to a fault, and much more trustworthy and reliable than most people. That plus they tend to be much more likely to care about injustice and actually take action to do something about it, something I find most people are absolutely NOT willing to do. That plus they naturally question everything, especially things that don't make logical sense, like a lot of cultural traditions and cultural norms that I have always questioned and hated too.

1

u/ZoeBlade Feb 02 '25

Huh, that's interesting! And sweet. You might be the first person I've heard of who feels that way. More seem to claim to like (maybe like the idea of?) things like honesty, integrity, and lateral thinking, but really just want someone who gets along with everyone even when they're doing abhorrent things. "Be a team player, don't rock the boat, etc."

Like how, conversely, a lot of us like the idea of friends and partners but don't have the time or energy to actually maintain many relationships...