In order to address the problem of traditional dolphin adjuvant therapy such as high cost and its limitation in time and place, this paper introduces a three-dimensional virtual dolphin adjuvant therapy system based on virtual reality technology. By adopting Oculus wearable three-dimensional display, the system combined natural human-computer interaction based on Leap Motion with high-precision gesture recognition and cognitive training, and achieved immersive three-dimensional interactive game for child rehabilitation training purposes. The experimental data showed that the system can effectively improve the cognitive and social abilities of those children with autism spectrum disorder, providing a useful exploration for the rehabilitation of those children.
The early diagnosis of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is essential. Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of most commonly used neuroimaging techniques as the most accessible and informative method. In this study, approximate entropy (ApEn), sample entropy (SaEn), permutation entropy (PeEn) and wavelet entropy (WaEn) were extracted from EEGs of ASD child and a control group, and Student's t-test was used to analyze between-group differences. Support vector machine (SVM) algorithm was utilized to build classification models for each entropy measure derived from different regions. Permutation test was applied in search for optimize subset of features, with which the SVM model achieved best performance. The results showed that the complexity of EEGs in children with autism was lower than that of the normal control group. Among all four entropies, WaEn got a better classification performance than others. Classification results vary in different regions, and the frontal lobe showed the best performance. After feature selection, six features were filtered out and the accuracy rate was increased to 84.55%, which can be convincing for assisting early diagnosis of autism.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the association between maternal folate supplementation during pregnancy and the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the offspring.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, Scopus, CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP and CBM databases were electronically searched to collect case-control and cohort studies on the association between maternal folate supplementation during pregnancy and the risk of ASD in the offspring from inception to December 2020. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Meta-analysis was then performed using RevMan 5.3 and Stata 14.0 software.ResultsA total of 17 studies involving 10 812 cases and 876 241 controls were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that there was no significant association between maternal folate supplementation during pregnancy and the risk of ASD in the offspring in the total population. The subgroup analysis revealed that maternal folate supplementation during pregnancy was statistically associated with a reduced risk of ASD in the offspring in the Asian population (OR=0.71, 95%CI 0.53 to 0.96, P=0.03). However, there were no statistical correlations in European and American populations.ConclusionsCurrent evidence shows that maternal folate supplementation during pregnancy may reduce the risk of ASD in the offspring in the Asian population. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high-quality studies are required to verify the above conclusions.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the diagnostic accuracy of MRI in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder. MethodsDatabases including Web of Science, PubMed, The Cochrane Library, EMbase, CBM, CNKI, WanFang Data, and VIP were electronically searched for studies on MRI in diagnosis of preschool children with autism spectrum disorder from inception to January 2022. Two reviewers independently screened the literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias the included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using Meta-Disc, RevMan 5.4 and Stata 16.0 software. ResultsA total of 17 studies were finally included. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnosis odds ratio and area under the curve of SROC were 0.78 (95%CI 0.76 to 0.81), 0.77 (95%CI 0.75 to 0.79), 3.92 (95%CI 2.83 to 5.41), 0.28 (95%CI 0.23 to 0.35), 14.8 (95%CI 9.31 to 23.52) and 0.86, respectively. Subgroup analysis revealed that the source of patients, age, prediction methods and analysis features were potential sources of heterogeneity. Heterogeneity in the subgroup of 1-3 years old was small, and the pooled sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve of SROC were 0.81 (95%CI 0.76 to 0.85), 0.82 (95%CI 0.78 to 0.86) and 0.87, respectively. The pooled sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve of SROC for non-site studies were 0.80 (95%CI 0.75 to 0.84), 0.80 (95%CI 0.76 to 0.85) and 0.86, respectively. ConclusionMRI has a high accuracy in the diagnosis of preschool children with autism spectrum disorder; however, the possibility of misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis should be considered. Due to the limited quantity and quality of the included studies, more high-quality studies are needed to verify the above conclusion.
Objective To explore the intervention effect of music therapy on children with autism spectrum disorder. Methods The China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, Chongqing VIP, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library were searched by computer to comprehensively collect randomized controlled trials on the intervention effect of music therapy on children with autism spectrum disorder. The search period was from the establishment of the database to December 31, 2022. RevMan 5.4 software was used for meta-analysis. Results Finally, 20 articles were included, including 913 cases in the music therapy group and 811 cases in the control group, with a total sample size of 1724 cases. The meta-analysis results showed that the overall treatment effect [standardized mean difference (SMD)=−0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) (−1.12, −0.78)], the treatment effect of language [SMD=−0.71, 95%CI (−0.84, −0.57)], behavior [SMD=−0.65, 95%CI (−0.78, −0.52)], social interaction [SMD=−0.52, 95%CI (−0.63, −0.40)], cognition [SMD=1.37, 95%CI (1.00, 1.74)] and sensory perception [SMD=−0.89, 95%CI (−1.03, −0.74)] of the music therapy group were better than those of the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion The existing data show that music therapy applied to children with autism spectrum disorder can effectively improve their language, behavior, social interaction, cognition, and sensory perception, thereby having a positive impact on the overall treatment effect of children. However, due to the limitations of the number and quality of included studies, more high-quality studies are needed to verify.