Poincaré Section based Biomarkers of Hemispheric Asymmetry, applied to Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Asymmetry and symmetry coexist in natural and human processes and the interaction of asymmetric action (recursion) and symmetric opposition (sinusoidal waves) are instrumental in generating creative features. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a disorder in which asymmetry and functionality of brain hemispheres are affected. In this study, difference in brain asymmetry in ASD and normal children and the effect of voice on asymmetry are being investigated. Because of Abnormal cortical voice processing in ASD data recording is done in two situations: animation with audio (V–A) for 5 minutes, and watching the animation with muted audio band (VwA). Two Indexes Divergence (D) and number of poincaré section points further from threshold (HD) as new biomarkers are being extracted. Hemispheric asymmetry in ASD children does not follow norm patterns and in all statistical tests H and HD indexes confirm a disorder in hemisphere’s functionality which can be globally unveiled with poincaré section and extracted information. Two remarkable features of presented method are: data recording protocol specialized for ASD children and new practical time series analysis for detecting episodic patterns (complexes) as hallmark of ASD dynamic and arrangement as an empirical measure of nonrandom complexity. Presented method could detect this complexes.