Using teens' online social interactions to help diagnose autism and ADHD
Crowd-Powered Machine Learning to Diagnose ASD and ADHD in Adolescents from Digital Social Interactions
This project combines people-powered labels and machine learning on teenagers' online social interactions to find signs of autism and ADHD.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of California, San Francisco NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (San Francisco, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11259870 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
From your perspective, researchers will collect adolescents' digital social interaction data (with consent) such as social posts and messaging patterns. Trained crowd annotators will label behaviors in those interactions and those labels will train machine learning models. The team aims to find everyday online signals that could point to autism or ADHD and turn those signals into tools that support clinicians. Privacy protections and remote participation options are built into the plan so families can take part from home.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are adolescents with concerns about autism or ADHD and their caregivers who are willing to share digital social interaction data and provide consent for remote participation.
Not a fit: People who are not teenagers, do not use digital social platforms, or prefer not to share personal online interactions may not benefit from this approach.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could help identify autism or ADHD earlier or more accurately using everyday online behavior, speeding access to appropriate support and services.
How similar studies have performed: Previous work using digital behavior and machine learning to flag mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions has shown promise, but using crowd-labeled social interactions specifically for diagnosing ASD and ADHD in teens is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
San Francisco, United States
- University of California, San Francisco — San Francisco, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Washington, Peter — University of California, San Francisco
- Study coordinator: Washington, Peter
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.