Motor behavior and autism: thematic mapping dataset

The Motor Behavior and Autism: Thematic Mapping Dataset was developed to enable a comprehensive mapping of the scientific literature on motor behavior in autistic individuals. Its primary objective is to systematically organize and synthesize existing research to inform evidence-based motor interventions and to identify critical gaps in the field. The dataset comprises curated metadata and thematic classifications derived from 1,215 peer-reviewed articles published between 1994 and 2024. Articles were analyzed using natural language processing techniques, specifically Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), to uncover and model latent topics. Each topic is annotated with its most frequent terms, associated thematic domains, and core conceptual categories. Manual validation and coding procedures were applied to ensure greater interpretability and analytical rigor. Intended for reuse in academic, educational, and clinical contexts, this dataset supports meta-research, informs the development of targeted motor intervention programs for autistic individuals, and promotes transparency and reproducibility in topic modeling research within the health and education sciences.