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2015, Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
Frontiers in integrative neuroscience
Torres et al. (2013) Autism: the micro-movement perspectiveThe current assessment of behaviors in the inventories to diagnose autism spectrum disorders (ASD) focus on observation and discrete categorizations. Behaviors require movements, yet measurements of physical movements are seldom included. Their inclusion however, could provide an objective characterization of behavior to help unveil interactions between the peripheral and the central nervous systems. Such interactions are critical for the development and maintenance of spontaneous autonomy, self-regulation and voluntary control. At present, current approaches cannot deal with the heterogeneous, dynamic and stochastic nature of development. Accordingly, they leave no avenues for real-time or longitudinal assessments of change in a coping system continuously adapting and developing compensatory mechanisms. We offer a new unifying statistical framework to reveal re-afferent kinesthetic features of the individual with ASD. The new methodology is based on the non-stationary stochastic patterns of minute fluctuations (micro-movements) inherent to our natural actions. Such patterns of behavioral variability provide re-entrant sensory feedback contributing to the autonomous regulation and coordination of the motor output. From an early age, this feedback supports centrally driven volitional control and fluid, flexible transitions between intentional and spontaneous behaviors. We show that in ASD there is a disruption in the maturation of this form of proprioception. Despite this disturbance, each individual has unique adaptive compensatory capabilities that we can unveil and exploit to evoke faster and more accurate decisions. Measuring the kinesthetic re-afference in tandem with stimuli variations we can detect changes in their micro-movements indicative of a more predictive and reliable kinesthetic percept. Our methods address the heterogeneity of ASD with a personalized approach grounded in the inherent sensory-motor abilities that the individual has already developed.
Frontiers in integrative neuroscience
Noise from the periphery in autism (Brincker & Torres, 2013)Developmental disorders such as autism have generally been theorized as due to some kind of modular “deficit” or “dysfunction”—typically of cortical origin, i.e., failures of “theory of mind”, of the “mirror neuron system”, of “weak central coherence” or of the balance of “empathizing” and “systemizing”, just to list a few. The broad array of autonomic and sensorimotor differences experienced and reported by people with autism have by such theories typically been sidelined as “co-morbidities,” possibly sharing genetic causes, but rendered as incidental and decisively behaviorally irrelevant symptoms—surely disconnected from cognition. This article entertains the idea that the development of cortically based mental processes and autonomous control relies on the complexities and proper function of the peripheral nervous systems. Through such an “embodied” lens the heterogeneous symptoms of autism invites new interpretations. We propose here that many behavioral-level findings can be re-defined as downstream effects of how developing nervous systems attempt to cope and adapt to the challenges of having various noisy, unpredictable, and unreliable peripheral inputs.
Movement variability has emerged as a critical research component in the field of neural motor control. This chapter explains why movement variability can be seen as such a rich resource for studying neural development and ASD. This cannot be done without a framework for understanding the relationship between neural control, movement and movement sensing. Thus in the process of explaining why we should study movements several analytical and empirical aspects of motor-sensed variability from self-generated actions are recast, as are their putative role in the development of motor-sensory-sensed maps of external stimuli present in social settings. Overall, the Chapter offers a new lens for the research and treatments of neurodevelopmental disorders on a spectrum. In particular, disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) giving rise to different social manifestations are discussed within the renovated unifying framework of kinesthetic reafference using the new micro-movements data type paired with new accompanying analytics. 2
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
IN INTEGRATIVE NEUROSCIENCE Noise from the Periphery in Autism2013 •
Journal of Neurophysiology
Strategies to develop putative biomarkers to characterize the female phenotype with Autism Spectrum Disorders2013 •
The autistic condition, as currently defined by observation and dependent on a-priori defined notions of social appropriateness, has gained prevalence of epidemic proportions worldwide. In the US, the systems that diagnose and treat the condition follow a clinical model primarily based on a psychological / psychiatric construct. Such approach leaves out bodily physiology and its sensory consequences in favor of descriptions and interpretations of observational data gathered by hand without proper scientific rigor. The clinical model thus constructed serves a fast pace system to provide recommendations for treatment that directly impact the lives of the affected individuals and their core caregiver family unit, but fails to embrace them as active members of the society at large. While limiting the potential contributions of the autistic person to our society, the current clinical model is also interfering with the scientific model and its progress, which has considerably stalled. This Chapter exposes some of the contemporary issues surrounding the complex relationships between society at large and the autistic population in the context of a psychological/psychiatric model that is not working.
"Autism: The Movement Sensing Perspective" by Torres & Whyatt (eds.)
Why study movement variability in Autism? (Co-authored w. Torres)2017 •
Autism has been defined as a disorder of social cognition, interaction and communication where ritualistic, repetitive behaviors are commonly observed. But how should we understand the behavioral and cognitive differences that have been the main focus of so much autism research? Can high-level cognitive processes and behaviors be identified as the core issues people with autism face, or do these characteristics perhaps often rather reflect individual attempts to cope with underlying physiological issues? Much research presented in this volume will point to the latter possibility, i.e. that people on the autism spectrum cope with issues at much lower physiological levels pertaining not only to Central Nervous Systems (CNS) function, but also to peripheral and autonomic systems (PNS, ANS) (Torres, Brincker, et al. 2013). The question that we pursue in this chapter is what might be fruitful ways of gaining objective measures of the large-scale systemic and heterogeneous effects of early atypical neurodevelopment; how to track their evolution over time and how to identify critical changes along the continuum of human development and aging. We suggest that the study of movement variability—very broadly conceived as including all minute fluctuations in bodily rhythms and their rates of change over time (coined micro-movements (Figure 1A-B) (Torres, Brincker, et al. 2013))—offers a uniquely valuable and entirely objectively quantifiable lens to better assess, understand and track not only autism but cognitive development and degeneration in general. This chapter presents the rationale firstly behind this focus on micro-movements and secondly behind the choice of specific kinds of data collection and statistical metrics as tools of analysis (Figure 1C). In brief the proposal is that the micro-movements (defined in Part I – Chapter 1), obtained using various time scales applied to different physiological data-types (some examples in Figure 1), contain information about layered influences and temporal adaptations, transformations and integrations across anatomically semi-independent subsystems that crosstalk and interact. Further, the notion of sensorimotor re-afference is used to highlight the fact that these layered micro-motions are sensed and that this sensory feedback plays a crucial role in the generation and control of movements in the first place. In other words, the measurements of various motoric and rhythmic variations provide an access point not only to the “motor systems”, but also access to much broader central and peripheral sensorimotor and regulatory systems. Lastly, we posit that this new lens can also be used to capture influences from systems of multiple entry points or collaborative control and regulation, such as those that emerge during dyadic social interactions.
The autistic condition, as currently defined by observation and dependent on a-priori defined notions of social appropriateness, has gained prevalence of epidemic proportions worldwide. In the US, the systems that diagnose and treat the condition follow a clinical model primarily based on a psychological / psychiatric construct. Such approach leaves out bodily physiology and its sensory consequences in favor of descriptions and interpretations of observational data gathered by hand without proper scientific rigor. The clinical model thus constructed serves a fast pace system to provide recommendations for treatment that directly impact the lives of the affected individuals and their core caregiver family unit, but fails to embrace them as active members of the society at large. While limiting the potential contributions of the autistic person to our society, the current clinical model is also interfering with the scientific model and its progress, which has considerably stalled. This Chapter exposes some of the contemporary issues surrounding the complex relationships between society at large and the autistic population in the context of a psychological/psychiatric model that is not working.
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
Give spontaneity and self-discovery a chance in ASD: spontaneous peripheral limb variability as a proxy to evoke centrally driven intentional acts2013 •
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
Two-legged hopping in autism spectrum disorders2013 •
Neural Computation
Hidden Aspects of the Research-ADOS are Bound to Affect Autism Science2019 •
Autism: The Movement Sensing Perspective
On the Brainstem Origin of Autism: Disruption to Movements of the Primary Self2017 •
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Motor output variability, deafferentation, and putative deficits in kinesthetic reafference in Parkinson’s disease2014 •
MA-thesis, Philosophy & Science Studies and Psychology, Roskilde University
A Phenomenology of the Autistic Body2016 •
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
Autism as a developmental disorder in intentional movement and affective engagement2013 •
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
Coordination of precision grip in 2–6 years-old children with autism spectrum disorders compared to children developing typically and children with developmental disabilities2012 •
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
Gait analysis of teenagers and young adults diagnosed with autism and severe verbal communication disorders2013 •
Research in developmental disabilities
The role of physiological arousal in the management of challenging behaviours in individuals with autistic spectrum disorders2014 •
Frontiers in Endocrinology
Novel Personalized Dietary Treatment for Autism Based on the Gut-Immune-Endocrine-Brain Axis2019 •
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
Physiological and behavioral differences in sensory processing: a comparison of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Sensory Processing Disorder2009 •
Frontiers in integrative neuroscience
Physiological and behavioral differences in sensory processing: a comparison of children with autism spectrum disorder and sensory modulation disorder2009 •
2012 •
Scientific Reports
Toward the Autism Motor Signature: Gesture patterns during smart tablet gameplay identify children with autism2016 •
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
Autism and social disconnection in interpersonal rocking2013 •
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
Cognitive-motor interactions of the basal ganglia in development2014 •
Frontiers in neuroengineering
Brain-computer interface game applications for combined neurofeedback and biofeedback treatment for children on the autism spectrum2014 •