Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37137954›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2023

Blink rate and facial orientation reveal distinctive patterns of attentional engagement in autistic toddlers: a digital phenotyping approach.

Pradeep Raj Krishnappa Babu, Vikram Aikat, J Matias Di Martino, Zhuoqing Chang, Sam Perochon, Steven Espinosa, Rachel Aiello, Kimberly L H Carpenter, Scott Compton, Naomi Davis and 5 more

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
2.6field-weighted citation impact, top 10% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Autism Digital Phenotyping in Preschool- and School-Age Children.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2025
    Article
  4. Beyond FACS: Data-driven Facial Expression Dictionaries, with Application to Predicting Autism.Proceedings of the ... International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition. IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face & Gesture Recognition · 2025
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

15 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Pradeep Raj Krishnappa Babu *Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Vikram Aikat *Department of Computer Science, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
J Matias Di MartinoDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Zhuoqing ChangDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Sam PerochonEcole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, Gif-Sur-Yvette, France.
Steven EspinosaOffice of Information Technology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Rachel AielloDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Kimberly L H CarpenterDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Scott ComptonDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Naomi DavisDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Brian EichnerDepartment of Pediatrics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Jacqueline FlowersDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Lauren FranzDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Geraldine DawsonDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. geraldine.dawson@duke.edu.
Guillermo SapiroDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. guillermo.sapiro@duke.edu.
Duke University · USCenter for Autism and Related Disorders · USÉcole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay · FR

Funding

Recruitment and Assessment CoreP50HD093074 · NICHD · DUKE UNIVERSITY · PI Geraldine Dawson · 2017 to 2026
$27.6M
Novel Approaches to Infant Screening for ASD in Pediatric Primary CareR01MH121329 · NIMH · DUKE UNIVERSITY · PI DAWSON, GERALDINE · 2019 to 2023
$3.9M
Scalable Computational Platform For Active Closed-Loop Behavioral Coding in Autism Spectrum DisorderR01MH120093 · NIMH · DUKE UNIVERSITY · PI DAWSON, GERALDINE, SAPIRO, GUILLERMO R · 2019 to 2022
$1.6M
NICHD NIH HHS P50 HD093074NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH120093NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH121329
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Differences in social attention are well-documented in autistic individuals, representing one of the earliest signs of autism. Spontaneous blink rate has been used to index attentional engagement, with lower blink rates reflecting increased engagement. We evaluated novel methods using computer vision analysis (CVA) for automatically quantifying patterns of attentional engagement in young autistic children, based on facial orientation and blink rate, which were captured via mobile devices. Participants were 474 children (17-36 months old), 43 of whom were diagnosed with autism. Movies containing social or nonsocial content were presented via an iPad app, and simultaneously, the device's camera recorded the children's behavior while they watched the movies. CVA was used to extract the duration of time the child oriented towards the screen and their blink rate as indices of attentional engagement. Overall, autistic children spent less time facing the screen and had a higher mean blink rate compared to neurotypical children. Neurotypical children faced the screen more often and blinked at a lower rate during the social movies compared to the nonsocial movies. In contrast, autistic children faced the screen less often during social movies than during nonsocial movies and showed no differential blink rate to social versus nonsocial movies.

Indexed as

Attentional BlinkAutistic DisorderAttentionChild, PreschoolHumansInfantVision, Ocular

Identifiers

PMID37137954
PMCPMC10156751
OpenAlexW4368359111

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.