There is related autism & self-regulation research out of Harvard & Boston Children's[1] that uses video games & biofeedback sensors in a very ingenious way:
The children participate in common games on a tablet where the difficultly (and the stress of playing) slowly increases. Signs of frustration / stress from the bio monitors like a rapid heartbeat make clouds slowly start to cover the screen a bit like a screensaver. That provides the children a visual clue to do some self-soothing. Take deep breaths, your heart rate lowers, the screen becomes clear again so you can keep playing.
The idea is to practice emotional regulation and emotional awareness a few hours a day to build competency.
By using machine learning on data from wearable biosensors, researchers can predict imminent aggressive behavior in autistic children and teenagers in psychiatric inpatient settings.
Presumably, some combination of measurable signals (e.g. heart rate, blood pressure, perspiration, certain movements, muscle tenseness, ....) could do the same thing, regardless of whether autism were present or not.
Patient cooperation may be a factor - or, "those durned prisoners keep taking their sensors off". And then when we take the next logical step - surgical implants - it does indeed start to feel a tad Minority Reporty.
Exactly....considering the relative harm each causes, I think we'd get a lot more bang for our buck studying neurotypicals like this than autists....and presumably if it was successful, we could then uses the subsequent savings from efficiencies/harm to improve the lives of the autists.
"Some experts caution that these tools can never substitute for the judgment clinicians hone through years of experience — but should instead augment it"...
Good luck with that. Tools can't have responsibility. (Bad for customers, good for organizations)
Elaborating: What % of autist people kills someone out of aggressive behavior? I am quite sure we don't know, because, I suspect, it is low. Compare that to the general population.
The only reason they want to put tracking devices on autists is because. unlike healthy people, autists can't fight back.
Once the technology is mature, you try to enforce it on (sell it to) exconvicts, immigrants and jaywalkers.
Ehh... I can tell you reasons why that won't always work.....
First off, sensitivity to stimuli. I see someone wearing a wristband/watch in one of the pictures in the article. Some autistic people are super sensitive to wearing things like watches, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, headbands, etc. Oh wait, sensor gear is almost always one of those things...
The other is that as much as people talk about repetitiveness and rituals, I can tell you that sometimes there is no pattern! My brother who is most strongly on the spectrum, is older than I am... so I've known him my entire life. I have a pretty good idea what he likes, doesn't like, and what stresses him. There are still occasional days where he has a meltdown and I sit there and go through my 'notes' and can't figure it out.
One time I was trying to recount this experience to his doctor and she said it sounded like I was looking for signals in a field of noise. She was right. Sometimes it's just too random to really know.
I imagine it's easier if you have a willing subject who can communicate with you why they got upset after the fact. Unfortunately for my brother, "why" is a question he doesn't like answering - and when he (rarely) does, the answers are usually not very credible like "Why were you so angry?" "because you haven't taken me out shopping on Saturday yet!" (and it's Tuesday and we just went Saturday)
(The funnier part is he'll often ask me "why" I do things lol :D)
Anyway, back to the article. I don't like it. Inpatient psychiatric settings are already a scary sorta place. You get locked in a building you might not be familiar with, might have to wear different clothing (not usually but sometimes), be exposed to different noises and scents and temperature... and be around other people, also with other issues.. Being forced to wear sensors sounds like it'd add to the awfulness. It's also not a great environment to observe someone because they might just "shut down" from their normal behavioral patterns. AND IF THEY DON'T "SHUT DOWN" they might be encouraged to do so by getting a strong dosage of medicine.
That's not fun. I get where they're coming from - psychiatrists (that take insurance, especially state medicaid plans which most patients would probably have) are usually overworked, underpaid, and it's a stressful job where everyone's hoping for an easy fix but it's not easy.
Still, I appreciate the sacrifice the patients in those research projects are making, and the work the researchers are putting in. Especially for adults on the spectrum. There are vast vast amounts of resources expended on helping kids with autism but the moment you turn 18 it's basically "good luck lol"
> I can tell you that sometimes there is no pattern!
As an autist: you don't see the patterns that you've disrupted. We don't talk about most of our problems.
Often it can be something like: "3 days ago, you forgot to mention ahead of time that you were going to the store. As a result, everything has been stressful and I responded badly to things that normally would've been below the alarm threshold."
Generally I find that 3 days is about how long oneshot disruptions cause problems, though this is tapering. 1 day is usually enough for my coping strategies to kick in and mitigate the worst at least. Of course, ongoing problems or unrelated but coincident problems can stretch it longer.
> First off, sensitivity to stimuli. I see someone wearing a wristband/watch in one of the pictures in the article. Some autistic people are super sensitive to wearing things like watches, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, headbands, etc. Oh wait, sensor gear is almost always one of those things...
Yeah, I can't wear a watch 24/7 (nor throughout the day). My skin can't handle it, I get rashes. I'd love to wear a watch throughout the day. I retry it every few years. It just doesn't work out.
My wife can't deal with an electric toothbrush. I swear by it.
I do like the attempt at aiding diagnosis with 'digital phenotypes.' Currently, the number one input into getting a mental health diagnosis is self reported (or guardian/caretaker/teacher reported for minors) subjective experiences. This generates a huge problem with screening or diagnosing. The current state of the art for autism diagnosis involves a panel of experts and multiple days of testing/observation/interviews. We currently know there are physical differences in the body and statistical differences in behavior for autism. I don't think this watch is the answer -- but I do appreciate the recognition this article makes that diagnosis is currently inefficient and inaccurate.
The diagnosis problem exists for other mental health conditions too, but Autism is perhaps the worst example in the industry.
This is the exact problem with most mental health diagnoses - patient answers a set of 10-30 questions, nurse practitioner nods solemnly and writes prescription for controlled substance. We are in the Stone Age with mental health.
Autism will end up being torn into independent diagnosis of correlated traits. There's no underlying nexus between the list of symptoms beyond statistical correlation.
High IQ? ADHD? Bipolar? Eye sensitivity? Loneliness? It seems little is in common beyond correlations.
This description is not even wrong. It's random misunderstandings combined.
There's a list of autism symptoms used diagnostically. The list above is nowhere even close. Neither High IQ is used as a diagnostic of autism (and you can have autism and low IQ), nor ADHD (hell, until recently it was the opposite: doctors used to believe you can't have both ADHD and autism), nor bipolar disorder (at best a comorbidity).
I'll give you "eye sensitivity" (sensory sensitivity), which is one of the diagnostic symptoms.
As for loneliness, that is a second order effect under certain social circumstances, not a psysiological result of autism. Might as well consider bullying a symptom.
Often there is a diagnosis of autism and of the comorbidities you mentioned.
And there is not always only a correlation and not a causation. People with autism, adhd etc. have a higher risk for depression and social anxiety, often induced by the experience of living with these conditions.
Readit News
The children participate in common games on a tablet where the difficultly (and the stress of playing) slowly increases. Signs of frustration / stress from the bio monitors like a rapid heartbeat make clouds slowly start to cover the screen a bit like a screensaver. That provides the children a visual clue to do some self-soothing. Take deep breaths, your heart rate lowers, the screen becomes clear again so you can keep playing.
The idea is to practice emotional regulation and emotional awareness a few hours a day to build competency.
[1] https://www.mightier.com
Patient cooperation may be a factor - or, "those durned prisoners keep taking their sensors off". And then when we take the next logical step - surgical implants - it does indeed start to feel a tad Minority Reporty.
"Some experts caution that these tools can never substitute for the judgment clinicians hone through years of experience — but should instead augment it"...
Good luck with that. Tools can't have responsibility. (Bad for customers, good for organizations)
Elaborating: What % of autist people kills someone out of aggressive behavior? I am quite sure we don't know, because, I suspect, it is low. Compare that to the general population.
The only reason they want to put tracking devices on autists is because. unlike healthy people, autists can't fight back.
Once the technology is mature, you try to enforce it on (sell it to) exconvicts, immigrants and jaywalkers.
First off, sensitivity to stimuli. I see someone wearing a wristband/watch in one of the pictures in the article. Some autistic people are super sensitive to wearing things like watches, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, headbands, etc. Oh wait, sensor gear is almost always one of those things...
The other is that as much as people talk about repetitiveness and rituals, I can tell you that sometimes there is no pattern! My brother who is most strongly on the spectrum, is older than I am... so I've known him my entire life. I have a pretty good idea what he likes, doesn't like, and what stresses him. There are still occasional days where he has a meltdown and I sit there and go through my 'notes' and can't figure it out.
One time I was trying to recount this experience to his doctor and she said it sounded like I was looking for signals in a field of noise. She was right. Sometimes it's just too random to really know.
I imagine it's easier if you have a willing subject who can communicate with you why they got upset after the fact. Unfortunately for my brother, "why" is a question he doesn't like answering - and when he (rarely) does, the answers are usually not very credible like "Why were you so angry?" "because you haven't taken me out shopping on Saturday yet!" (and it's Tuesday and we just went Saturday)
(The funnier part is he'll often ask me "why" I do things lol :D)
Anyway, back to the article. I don't like it. Inpatient psychiatric settings are already a scary sorta place. You get locked in a building you might not be familiar with, might have to wear different clothing (not usually but sometimes), be exposed to different noises and scents and temperature... and be around other people, also with other issues.. Being forced to wear sensors sounds like it'd add to the awfulness. It's also not a great environment to observe someone because they might just "shut down" from their normal behavioral patterns. AND IF THEY DON'T "SHUT DOWN" they might be encouraged to do so by getting a strong dosage of medicine.
That's not fun. I get where they're coming from - psychiatrists (that take insurance, especially state medicaid plans which most patients would probably have) are usually overworked, underpaid, and it's a stressful job where everyone's hoping for an easy fix but it's not easy.
Still, I appreciate the sacrifice the patients in those research projects are making, and the work the researchers are putting in. Especially for adults on the spectrum. There are vast vast amounts of resources expended on helping kids with autism but the moment you turn 18 it's basically "good luck lol"
As an autist: you don't see the patterns that you've disrupted. We don't talk about most of our problems.
Often it can be something like: "3 days ago, you forgot to mention ahead of time that you were going to the store. As a result, everything has been stressful and I responded badly to things that normally would've been below the alarm threshold."
Generally I find that 3 days is about how long oneshot disruptions cause problems, though this is tapering. 1 day is usually enough for my coping strategies to kick in and mitigate the worst at least. Of course, ongoing problems or unrelated but coincident problems can stretch it longer.
Yeah, I can't wear a watch 24/7 (nor throughout the day). My skin can't handle it, I get rashes. I'd love to wear a watch throughout the day. I retry it every few years. It just doesn't work out.
My wife can't deal with an electric toothbrush. I swear by it.
The diagnosis problem exists for other mental health conditions too, but Autism is perhaps the worst example in the industry.
Autism Through the Eyes of a Computer - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20876988 - Sept 2019 (6 comments)
High IQ? ADHD? Bipolar? Eye sensitivity? Loneliness? It seems little is in common beyond correlations.
There's a list of autism symptoms used diagnostically. The list above is nowhere even close. Neither High IQ is used as a diagnostic of autism (and you can have autism and low IQ), nor ADHD (hell, until recently it was the opposite: doctors used to believe you can't have both ADHD and autism), nor bipolar disorder (at best a comorbidity).
I'll give you "eye sensitivity" (sensory sensitivity), which is one of the diagnostic symptoms.
As for loneliness, that is a second order effect under certain social circumstances, not a psysiological result of autism. Might as well consider bullying a symptom.
In fact, various studies have shown that most people with ASD have a below average IQ.
Deleted Comment
Correlation is correlated with meaning, so what are you saying
And there is not always only a correlation and not a causation. People with autism, adhd etc. have a higher risk for depression and social anxiety, often induced by the experience of living with these conditions.