{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,23]],"date-time":"2026-06-23T15:23:31Z","timestamp":1782228211547,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,3]],"date-time":"2024-10-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1727913600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Neuroinform."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>Early and accurate diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is crucial for effective intervention, yet it remains a significant challenge due to its complexity and variability. Micro-expressions are rapid, involuntary facial movements indicative of underlying emotional states. It is unknown whether micro-expression can serve as a valid bio-marker for ASD diagnosis.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>This study introduces a novel machine-learning (ML) framework that advances ASD diagnostics by focusing on facial micro-expressions. We applied cutting-edge algorithms to detect and analyze these micro-expressions from video data, aiming to identify distinctive patterns that could differentiate individuals with ASD from typically developing peers. Our computational approach included three key components: (1) micro-expression spotting using Shallow Optical Flow Three-stream CNN (SOFTNet), (2) feature extraction via Micron-BERT, and (3) classification with majority voting of three competing models (MLP, SVM, and ResNet).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Despite the sophisticated methodology, the ML framework's ability to reliably identify ASD-specific patterns was limited by the quality of video data. This limitation raised concerns about the efficacy of using micro-expressions for ASD diagnostics and pointed to the necessity for enhanced video data quality.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Our research has provided a cautious evaluation of micro-expression diagnostic value, underscoring the need for advancements in behavioral imaging and multimodal AI technology to leverage the full capabilities of ML in an ASD-specific clinical context.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fninf.2024.1435091","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,3]],"date-time":"2024-10-03T11:21:29Z","timestamp":1727954489000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Can micro-expressions be used as a biomarker for autism spectrum disorder?"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"18","author":[{"given":"Mindi","family":"Ruan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Na","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiangxu","family":"Yu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenqi","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chuanbo","family":"Hu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Paula J.","family":"Webster","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lynn","family":"K. 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