Abstract. When monkeys tackle novel complex behavioral tasks by trial-anderror they select actions from repertoires of sensorimotor primitives that allow them to search solutions in a space which is coarser than the space of fine movements. Neuroscientific findings suggested that upper-limb sensorimotor primitives might be encoded, in terms of the final goal-postures they pursue, in premotor cortex. A previous work by the authors reproduced these results in a model based on the idea that cortical pathways learn sensorimotor primitives while basal ganglia learn to assemble and trigger them to pursue complex reward-based goals. This paper extends that model in several directions: a) it uses a Kohonen network to create a neural map with population encoding of postural primitives; b) it proposes an actor-critic reinforcement learning algorithm capable of learning to select those primitives in a biologically plausible fashion (i.e., through a dynamic competition between postures); c) it proposes a procedure to pre-train the actor to select promising primitives when tackling novel reinforcement learning tasks. Some tests (obtained with a task used for studying monkeys engaged in learning reaching-action sequences) show that the model is computationally sound and capable of learning to select sensorimotor primitives from the postures' continuous space on the basis of their population encoding.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder typically assessed and diagnosed through observational analysis of behavior. Assessment exclusively based on behavioral observation sessions requires a lot of time for the diagnosis. In recent years, there is a growing need to make assessment processes more motivating and capable to provide objective measures of the disorder. New evidence showed that motor abnormalities may underpin the disorder and provide a computational marker to enhance assessment and diagnostic processes. Thus, a measure of motor patterns could provide a means to assess young children with autism and a new starting point for rehabilitation treatments. In this study, we propose to use a software tool that through a smart tablet device and touch screen sensor technologies could be able to capture detailed information about children’s motor patterns. We compared movement trajectories of autistic children and typically developing children, with the aim to identify autism motor signatures analyzing their coordinates of movements. We used a smart tablet device to record coordinates of dragging movements carried out by 60 children (30 autistic children and 30 typically developing children) during a cognitive task. Machine learning analysis of children’s motor patterns identified autism with 93% accuracy, demonstrating that autism can be computationally identified. The analysis of the features that most affect the prediction reveals and describes the differences between the groups, confirming that motor abnormalities are a core feature of autism.

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Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are characterized by differences in socio-pragmatic communication. These conditions are allocated within a “spectrum” of phenotypic variability. Virtual reality (VR) is a useful tool for healthcare intervention and particularly safely advancing social abilities in children with ASD. Methods: In our study two types of intervention for improving social skills were compared: (i) emotional training obtained by the use of virtual reality (Gr1), (ii) traditional emotional training performed individually with a therapist (Gr2). We aimed to identify the intervention with the shortest acquisition time for the proposed social tasks. Results: Our findings show that both types of intervention had the same acquisition time for the recognition of primary emotions. However, for the use of primary and secondary emotions, the group using VR showed shorter acquisition times. Conclusions: These findings together with previous preliminary datasuggest that VR can be a promising, dynamic and effective practice for the support of basic and complex social skills of these individuals.