Instances of autism have been rapidly increasing in the United States over the past few decades, with recent rates of affliction reported as high as 1 in 68 children. For many children affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD), difficulties with language development are an unfortunate reality.
Using fMRI brain scans of 12-19 month old children that may have autism, the scientists report that they are able to predict whether a child will develop normal language skills, according to the new UCSD study.
The brain scans, which are performed while the young patients are asleep, are the first of their kind to be used for autism diagnosis and a departure from the behavior-based assessments currently in use.
By monitoring the brain’s responses to recorded language played in the fMRI while the child is sleeping, the researchers were able to get a clear picture of the brain’s activity in the associated language centers during the activity. The UCSD researchers then concluded that those children whose fMRI scans showed activity in their brain’s language centers eventually will develop better language skills — and vice versa.
According to Eric Courchesne, an autism researcher at UC San Diego and senior author of the study, fMRI scans may be helpful in developing appropriate therapies for those children affected by autism.
“We wanted to see if patterns of brain activity in response to language can explain and predict how well language skills would develop in a toddler with ASD before that toddler actually began talking,” said Courchesne.
“It’s important to develop more and new biological ways to identify and stratify the ASD population into clinical sub-types so that we can create better, more individualized treatments,” said co-author Karen Pierce, PhD, associate professor of neurosciences and co-director of the Autism Center of Excellence.
“Our work represents one of the first attempts using fMRI to define a neurofunctional biomarker of a subtype in very young ASD toddlers,” said Pierce. “Such subtypes help us understand the differences between persons with ASD. More importantly, they can help us determine how and why treatments are effective for some, but not all, on the autism spectrum.”
In addition to receiving over $7.8 million from the National Institute of Mental Health since 2009, Pierce and Courchesne’s research on autism was supported by grants from the National Foundation for Autism Research and Jesus College, Cambridge and the British Academy.
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