A random walk model to evaluate autism

T.R.S. Moura, U.L. Fulco and E.L. Albuquerque

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2018, vol. 492, issue C, 1694-1699

Abstract: A common test administered during neurological examination in children is the analysis of their social communication and interaction across multiple contexts, including repetitive patterns of behavior. Poor performance may be associated with neurological conditions characterized by impairments in executive function, such as the so-called pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs), a particular condition of the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Inspired in these diagnosis tools, mainly those related to repetitive movements and behaviors, we studied here how the diffusion regimes of two discrete-time random walkers, mimicking the lack of social interaction and restricted interests developed for children with PDDs, are affected. Our model, which is based on the so-called elephant random walk (ERW) approach, consider that one of the random walker can learn and imitate the microscopic behavior of the other with probability f (1−f otherwise). The diffusion regimes, measured by the Hurst exponent (H), is then obtained, whose changes may indicate a different degree of autism.

Keywords: Autism; Non-Markovian processes; Anomalous diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:492:y:2018:i:c:p:1694-1699

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2017.11.090

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