Profiles of autism characteristics in thirteen genetic syndromes: a machine learning approach

Abstract

Background: Phenotypic studies have identified distinct patterns of autistic characteristics in genetic syndromes associated with intellectual disability (ID), leading to diagnostic uncertainty and compromised access to autism-related support. Previous research has tended to include small samples and diverse measures, which limits the generalisability of findings. In this study, we generated detailed profiles of autistic characteristics in a large sample of > 1500 individuals with rare genetic syndromes. Methods: Profiles of autistic characteristics based on the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) scores were generated for thirteen genetic syndrome groups (Angelman n = 154, Cri du Chat n = 75, Cornelia de Lange n = 199, fragile X n = 297, Prader–Willi n = 278, Lowe n = 89, Smith–Magenis n = 54, Down n = 135, Sotos n = 40, Rubinstein–Taybi n = 102, 1p36 deletion n = 41, tuberous sclerosis complex n = 83 and Phelan–McDermid n = 35 syndromes). It was hypothesised that each syndrome group would evidence a degree of specificity in autistic characteristics. To test this hypothesis, a classification algorithm via support vector machine (SVM) learning was applied to scores from over 1500 individuals diagnosed with one of the thirteen genetic syndromes and autistic individuals who did not have a known genetic syndrome (ASD; n = 254). Self-help skills were included as an additional predictor. Results: Genetic syndromes were associated with different but overlapping autism-related profiles, indicated by the substantial accuracy of the entire, multiclass SVM model (55% correctly classified individuals). Syndrome groups such as Angelman, fragile X, Prader–Willi, Rubinstein–Taybi and Cornelia de Lange showed greater phenotypic specificity than groups such as Cri du Chat, Lowe, Smith–Magenis, tuberous sclerosis complex, Sotos and Phelan-McDermid. The inclusion of the ASD reference group and self-help skills did not change the model accuracy. Limitations: The key limitations of our study include a cross-sectional design, reliance on a screening tool which focuses primarily on social communication skills and imbalanced sample size across syndrome groups. Conclusions: These findings replicate and extend previous work, demonstrating syndrome-specific profiles of autistic characteristics in people with genetic syndromes compared to autistic individuals without a genetic syndrome. This work calls for greater precision of assessment of autistic characteristics in individuals with genetic syndromes associated with ID.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-022-00530-5
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology
College of Health & Life Sciences > Aston Institute of Health & Neurodevelopment (AIHN)
Aston University (General)
Additional Information: Copyright © 2023, The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Funding Information: Work conducted in this study was funded by Newlife Foundation, Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Foundation UK and Ireland, Baily Thomas Charitable Fund, Research Autism and Cerebra.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Research,Autism,Genetic syndromes,SVM,Machine learning,Behavioural phenotype
Publication ISSN: 2040-2392
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2024 08:54
Date Deposited: 16 Jan 2023 09:52
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://molecul ... 229-022-00530-5 (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2023-12
Published Online Date: 2023-01-13
Accepted Date: 2022-12-07
Authors: Bozhilova, Natali
Welham, Alice
Adams, Dawn
Bissell, Stacey
Bruining, Hilgo
Crawford, Hayley
Eden, Kate
Nelson, Lisa
Oliver, Christopher
Powis, Laurie
Richards, Caroline
Waite, Jane (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-8676-3070)
Watson, Peter
Rhys, Hefin
Wilde, Lucy
Woodcock, Kate
Moss, Joanna

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