{
  "abstract": "Stereotypical motor movements (SMM) are a core diagnostic feature of autism and remain difficult to quantify across individuals and developmental stages in an efficient and valid way. The current paper presents a novel pipeline that leverages Topological Data Analysis to quantify and characterize recurrent movement patterns. Specifically, we use persistent homology to construct low-dimensional, interpretable feature vectors that capture geometric properties associated with SMM in autistic people by extracting periodic structure from time series derived from pose estimation landmarks in video data and accelerometer signals from wearable sensors. We demonstrate that these features, combined with simple classifiers, enable accurate automated quantification of SMM in autistic people. Visualization of the learned feature space reveals that extracted features generalize across individuals and are not dominated by person-specific SMM. Our results highlight the potential of using mathematically principled features to support more scalable, interpretable, and person-agnostic characterization of SMM in autistic people in naturalistic settings.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Mathematics, Northeastern University",
    "Department of Mathematics, Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University",
    "Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, Ursinus College",
    "Bouve College of Health Sciences, Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Austin A. MBaye"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Jose A. Perea"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Christopher J. Tralie"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Matthew S. Goodwin"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3p3afs7e0c735.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1038/s41598-026-60095-8",
  "fulltext_url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-60095-8",
  "id": "3p3afs7e0c735",
  "issns": [
    "2045-2322"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-60095-8",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "lcc",
      "Q"
    ],
    [
      "lcc",
      "R"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1703|Topological and Geometric Data Analysis"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W4414016982",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-60095-8_reference.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-07-01",
  "publisher": "Nature Portfolio",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3p3afs7e0c735.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:45:54Z",
      "native_id": "efc3af3aa101429287554c16e3b58d18",
      "source": "doaj",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-60095-8"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "lcc:R",
      "subfield": "general"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Automated quantification of stereotypical motor movements in autism using persistent homology",
  "title_text": "Automated quantification of stereotypical motor movements in autism using persistent homology",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T13:45:54Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3p3afs7e0c735",
  "venue": "Scientific Reports",
  "versions": []
}