Explainable and Scalable Machine-Learning Algorithms for Detection of Autism Spectrum Disorder using fMRI Data

Specifically, misdiagnosis as well as the provision of treatments intended for one disorder to those impacted by another disorder represent critical challenges to the field of mental health and highlight an urgent need for the identification of appropriate biomarkers as well as novel approaches to aid clinicians in diagnosing mental illness and monitoring treatment outcomes [1]. The current psychiatric diagnostic process is based nearly exclusively on reports of behavioral and/or emotional observations of symptomology (DSM-5/ICD-10) and requires careful consideration of multiple aspects related to descriptions of these observations by informants such as parents, teachers, or children (e.g., when symptoms started, what they look like over time, how long they have lasted). Collectively, all of these factors rely heavily upon: a) clinicians obtaining sufficient information to characterize the nature of symptomatology and b) patient's and/or other informant's (e.g., parents, teachers) ability to sufficiently describe these symptoms as well as recall their onset, course, and duration. Unfortunately, in contrast to other health conditions (e.g., diabetes, HIV, hepatitis-C) which can be characterized based on interpretation of quantitative tests of biological markers (e.g., blood tests), no such quantitative tests of biological processes currently exist for mental health conditions such as ASD [2]. Fortunately, the emergence of "big data" analytics and the increasing availability of data shared across various repositories - particularly in the case of federally funded research - provide a renewed opportunity for leveraging more advanced analytic approaches (e.g., machine learning, deep learning) to develop diagnostic aids for clinicians as well as isolate potential biomarkers for a number of these mental health conditions (e.g., ADHD, ASD). Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) represents a lifelong neuro-developmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication, social interaction, and stereotypical interests and/or repetitive behaviors that emerge in the early developmental period [3].