Machine Learning Techniques for Autism Spectrum Disorder: current trends and future directions

Abstract

ASD or autism spectrum disorder is a critical neuro-developmental disorder that hinders an individual's capability of social communication and interaction. This disorder has acquired considerable attention and importance due to its ubiquity among individuals covering all the countries worldwide. Individuals with ASD struggles in daily life activities. Detection of autism with the help of medical tests is a tedious and very costly task. However, detection and care of ASD still remains unfamiliar due to inadequate awareness, knowledge among the society, limited number of diagnostic devices and limited verbal therapy services for ASD patients. This paper investigates and displays reviews of various machine learning approaches on extracting useful data associated with distinctive characteristics of ASD such as brain functioning, hyperactivitperactivity, language disability, etc. Current researches reveal that analysis of biological traits by employing machine learning techniques have helped in the progress of early detection of ASD. ABIDE dataset is very much explored for the research in ASD. Additionally, numerous studies for the advancement of tools are still in progression. The presented research work can remarkably aid future studies on machine learning for ASD.