Community Series in Advances in Social Cognition Assessment and Intervention in Autism Spectrum Disorder – Volume II

Objective: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a serious neurodevelopmental disorder that has become the leading cause of disability in children. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a potential solution to this issue. This study objectively analyzes the global research situation of AI in the treatment of ASD from 1995 to 2022, aiming to explore the global research status and frontier trends in this field.

Methods: Web of Science (WoS) and PubMed databese were searched for Literature related to AI on ASD from 1995 to April 2022. CiteSpace, VOSviewer, Pajek and Scimago Graphica were used to analyze the collaboration between countries/institutions/authors, clusters and bursts of keywords, as well as analyses on references.

Results: A total of 448 literature were included, the total number of literature has shown an increasing trend. The most productive country and institution were the USA, and Vanderbilt University. The authors with the greatest contributions were Warren, Zachary, Sakar, Nilanjan and Swanson, Amy. the most prolific and cited journal is Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, the highest cited and co-cited articles were Dautenhahn (Socially intelligent robots: dimensions of human-robot interaction 2007) and Scassellati B (Robots for Use in Autism Research 2012). “Artificial Intelligence”, “Brain Computer Interface” and “Humanoid Robot” were the hotspots and frontier trends of AI on ASD.

Conclusion: The application of AI in the treatment of ASD has attracted the attention of researchers all over the world. The education, social function and joint attention of children with ASD are the most concerned issues for global researchers. Robots shows gratifying advantages in these issues and have become the most commonly used technology. Wearable devices and brain-computer interface (BCI) were emerging AI technologies in recent years, which is the direction of further exploration. Restoring social function in individuals with ASD is the ultimate aim and driving force of research in the future.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with neurocognitive impairment, including executive dysfunctioning and social cognition (SC) deficits. Cognitive remediation (CR) is a behavioral training-based intervention aiming to improve cognitive processes. Its first use in psychiatry interested patients with schizophrenia, in whom promising results have been shown. Integrated CR programs targeting both social and non-social cognition have demonstrated to be effective in improving both cognitive domains and functional outcomes. CR studies in children and adolescents with ASD are still new, those regarding CR approaches combining social and executive functioning remediation are scares. One study examining the efficacy of cognitive enhancement therapy (CET) for improving cognitive abilities in ADS adults, showed significant differential increases in neurocognitive function and large social-cognitive improvements. Therefore, taking into account the overlap between ASD and schizophrenia, and considering the close link between executive functions (EF) and SC, we suggest that integrative approach in ASD could result in better outcomes. The present perspective aimed to highlight cognitive remediation (CR) programs contributions in ASD (especially in children and adolescents), and to discuss the value of combining social and non-social programs.