It is possible to diagnose autism as early as 6 months of a baby's life thanks to a simple MRI. Even before the onset of symptoms, which usually occur around the age of 2, it can be predicted whether a child will suffer from autism
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Is it possible to diagnoseautism from the 6 months of a baby's life thanks to a simple resonance. Even before the onset of symptoms, which usually occur around the age of 2, it can be predicted whether a child will suffer from autism.
The resonance in fact shows the different connections between the brain areas of children who will develop autism compared to those who will not get sick. This is what emerges from a research conducted by scientists of the North Carolina University di Chapel Hill. In fact, researchers have seen that certain areas of the brain are connected and synchronized in a certain way and this allows them to predict which children are at high risk of developing autism.
The typical characteristics of autism, that is, the impairment of social interaction and the deficit of verbal and non-verbal communication and repetitive behaviors, are noticed around the age of two.
At the head of the study joseph Piven, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Piven and his collaborators used magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the sleep brain activity of 59 children, all with an autistic older sibling.
They then measured the degree of synchronous activity between 26.335 pairs of brain regions. Regions that are active together are considered to be strongly connected. When the children turned 2, the parents filled out questionnaires on them behavior repetitive. The researchers assessed the children's language skills, motor skills, and social and communication skills: 11 of the 59 children had autism.
These children, unlike the others, already at six months of life had numerous differences in nerve connections between 230 areas observed with MRI.
Knowing which babies are most likely to have autism will allow doctors to initiate them to one nucleoside behavioral that will help them manage symptoms.
"The more we understand the brain before symptoms appear, the better prepared we will be to help children and their families" explains Joseph Piven.
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The discovery will have to be replicated before it can be used clinically, but researchers were almost unanimous that the study could be important for the early diagnosis of autism.
The research was published on Science Translational Medicine.
Francesca Mancuso
