Mandelli, V. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2023

Detection of idiosyncratic gaze fingerprint signatures in humans

Do individuals possess a gaze fingerprint that reveals how they uniquely look at the world? We tested this question by examining intra- and inter-subject gaze similarity across 700 static pictures of complex natural scenes. Independent discovery (n=105) and replication (n=46) datasets revealed that gaze fingerprinting is possible at relatively high rates (e.g., 52- 63%) compared to chance (e.g., 1-2%). We also introduce the idea of a gaze fingerprint barcode, which can reveal how an individual can be gaze fingerprinted across a large array of stimuli. Pre-registered longitudinal follow-up experiments show that gaze fingerprint barcodes are stable within-individual over short (e.g., weeks to months) and long (e.g., years) time frames. Finally, we find that increased gaze fingerprintability is associated with decreased levels of autistic traits. Overall, this work showcases the potential of gaze fingerprinting and may help reveal precision biomarkers relevant for studying conditions with atypical gaze patterns, such as autism.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Differential functional neural circuitry behind autism subtypes with marked imbalance between social-communicative and restricted repetitive behavior symptom domains

Social-communication (SC) and restricted repetitive behaviors (RRB) are autism diagnostic symptom domains. SC and RRB severity can markedly differ within and between individuals and may be underpinned by different neural circuitry and genetic mechanisms. Modeling SC-RRB balance could help identify how neural circuitry and genetic mechanisms map onto such phenotypic heterogeneity. Here we developed a phenotypic stratification model that makes highly accurate (97-99%) out-of-sample SC=RRB, SC>RRB, and RRB>SC subtype predictions. Applying this model to resting state fMRI data from the EU-AIMS LEAP dataset (n=509), we find that while the phenotypic subtypes share many commonalities in terms of intrinsic functional connectivity, they also show replicable differences within some networks compared to a typically-developing group (TD). Specifically, the somatomotor network is hypoconnected with perisylvian circuitry in SC>RRB and visual association circuitry in SC=RRB. The SC=RRB subtype show hyperconnectivity between medial motor and anterior salience circuitry. Genes that are highly expressed within these networks show a differential enrichment pattern with known autism-associated genes, indicating that such circuits are affected by differing autism-associated genomic mechanisms. These results suggest that SC-RRB imbalance subtypes share many commonalities, but also express subtle differences in functional neural circuitry and the genomic underpinnings behind such circuitry.

neuroscience↗