Detecting Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Spectral Analysis of Electroretinogram and Machine Learning: Preliminary results

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that impacts language, communication and social interactions. The current diagnostic process for ASD is based upon a detailed multidisciplinary assessment. Currently no clinical biomarker exists to help in the diagnosis and monitoring of this condition that has a prevalence of approximately 1%. The electroretinogram (ERG), is a clinical test that records the electrical response of the retina to light. The ERG is a promising way to study different neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, including ASD. In this study, we have proposed a machine learning based method to detect ASD from control subjects using the ERG waveform. We collected ERG signals from 47 control (CO) and 96 ASD individuals. We analyzed ERG signals both in the time and the spectral domain to gain insight into the statistically significant discriminating features between CO and ASD individuals. We evaluated the machine learning (ML) models using a subject independent cross validation-based approach. Time-domain features were able to detect ASD with a maximum 65% accuracy. The classification accuracy of our best ML model using time-domain and spectral features was 86%, with 98% sensitivity. Our preliminary results indicate that spectral analysis of ERG provides helpful information for the classification of ASD.