Outcome predictors in autism spectrum disorders preschoolers undergoing treatment as usual: insights from an observational study using artificial neural networks

摘要

BackgroundTreatment as usual (TAU) for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) includes eclectic treatments usually available in the community and school inclusion with an individual support teacher. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have never been used to study the effects of treatment in ASDs. The Auto Contractive Map (Auto-CM) is a kind of ANN able to discover trends and associations among variables creating a semantic connectivity map. The matrix of connections, visualized through a minimum spanning tree filter, takes into account nonlinear associations among variables and captures connection schemes among clusters. Our aim is to use Auto-CM to recognize variables to discriminate between responders versus no responders at TAU.