According to a press release in Newswise, a new study from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia may have pinpointed a tool to diagnose autism. According to the article:
Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) process sound and language a fraction of a second slower than children without ASDs, and measuring magnetic signals that mark this delay may become a standardized way to diagnose autism....
In the current study, Roberts and colleagues used magnetoencephalography (MEG), which detects magnetic fields in the brain, similar to the way electroencephalography (EEG) detects electrical fields. Using a helmet that surrounds the child's head, the team presents a series of recorded beeps, vowels and sentences. As the child's brain responds to each sound, noninvasive detectors in the MEG machine analyze the brain's changing magnetic fields.
The researchers compared 25 children with ASDs, having a mean age of 10 years, to 17 age-matched typically developing children. The children with ASDs had an average delay of 11 milliseconds (about 1/100 of a second) in their brain responses to sounds, compared to the control children. Among the group with ASDs, the delays were similar, whether or not the children had language impairments.
The reasons for this delay in processing are still somewhat unclear; according to one of the researchers, ""The delayed auditory response that we find in children with ASDs may reflect delayed white matter development in these children."
Next steps for the research team include determining whether the delays found in children with autism spectrum disorders are unique to that diagnosis. In addition, the team hopes to pinpoint other detectable differences in brain functioning among children with ASDs.
- Autism and the Brain
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) May Alleviate Symptoms of Autism
- Causes of Autism: Recent Findings
Instead of scanning the brain of children affected of autism they need to understand why many spontaneously recovering from Autism
Nothing is wrong with the brain of children affected with autism.
Children doesn’t getting affect with autism because of genetics or because something is wrong or unusual with their brain.
In the first place, children are getting affected with autism because adults don’t know what cause autism.
Many children doesn’t getting reed from autism because adults don’t know how to cure autism.
Nothing is wrong with the brains of children with autism? If there was nothing wrong with the brain, there wouldn’t be autism. A high percentage of kids and adults with autism have seizure disorders their entire lives or develop them. That is neurological and certainly connected to the brain. In order for people to better understand and to try and prevent and treat autism, understanding the brain is highly important.
Intriguingly, the MEG scan is looking at a minute difference in brain processing speed which is present in people with autism.
Does this tiny delay, which can undermine a person’s ability to function well in today’s world, truly constitute “something wrong?” It’s an interesting question.
I wonder whether one reason for the sudden rise in autism diagnoses could relate to our vastly increased demand for split-second responses to input? In the past, such ultra-fast processing was simply unnecessary!
Lisa
I’d be really surpirsed if this delay in processing is only seen in autism.My son has speech apraxia, amongst other things, and he certainly has a pronounced delay in processing speech.
In fact when he was younger we used to have to tell people that they needed to wait for a minute after asking a question,and that then he would be able to answer them.
Yet he does not have an autism diagnosis, nor signs of autism though he does have sensory issues/high pain tolerance and digestive issues.
i suspect this may be more evidence of a marker for some types of cognitive dysfunction, than distinctly a marker for autism.
Today was 2007’s two year check up, usually the doc says, see you at three..today he said an additional check-up has been added to the schedule, to be given at ag 2 1/2. The reason, “THE INCREASE IN AUTISM” has brough about this new need to check all children at 2 1/2.
http://www.chiroaccess.com/Articles/Autism-Asthma-and-Tylenol.aspx?id=0000124
nothing that hadn’t been considered before..however..I do wonder if aspirin ,given it’s anti-inflamatory properties could have prevented autism, not necessarily that tylenol was a factor..I became asthmatic after my polio vaccine, my mother gave me aspirin for every attack..it was a “no no” according to the docs then..it’s very acceptable now to prevent inflamation during asthma attacks…btw that was my first and last polio vaccine..the asthma continued for only a short while..about four years..
I see hope in the research. The findings with differences in white matter in the brain I find encouraging, we can add white matter into our 40’s, our brain function can otherwise mature until our 20’s, this is why I do so obsess over finding a cause, there is still hope late into their years to fix this.
Just was googling around for MEG Scan and I see you discussed it, ABC recently did a piece on MEG:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/sixty-seizures-brain-scan-detects-source/story?id=9730383
I’d love to see some researchers get their hands on this for further study. They could do SO much into figuring out where some of the issues are in autism.
My daughter participated in a study using Functional MRI (fMRI) to track reactions in the brain to various auditory stimulous, and show the differences between autistic and ‘normal’ information processing. The MEG scan in the report reminded me of that, but instead of taking ‘pictures’, the MEG takes ‘video’ of how the movement of the impulses go. If they can pinpoint what is happenning with the lack of communication between the different areas of the brain and more importantly where it is occurring, they may be able to do something about it.
Actually, ultra-fast processes [i]were[/i] necessary for “back then.” Things like fighting and driving (today) and hunting require an assortment of processing skills. If you are worse at this, likely you wouldn’t make a good hunter, if you were male, or you might get yourself killed or endanger team members. As a woman, there was still loads of stuff to pay attention to, as well. (”Back then” I am defining as pre-Industrialization) I don’t know if I am getting my point across. Hope I am.
I think that the video/TV/computer data that is forced into the brains of babies and toddlers long before they can process it correctly is a major cause for the wiring of the brain to have this micro-timing glitch in it. Has anyone surveyed the children whose parents have followed the advice of child psychologists and kept video/TV/computer stuff at minimum or none? I’ll bet there is not a high rate of autism in those kids.