The latest news in the autism community related to findings of a study published in the journal Autism Research lends support of a biological measurement to help diagnose Autism. The details of this study were reported by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in their article “Brain Imaging May Help 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.
View photo of child undergoing magnetoencephalography
The researchers compared 25 children with autism spectrum disorders, 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.
“This delayed response suggests that the auditory system may be slower to develop and mature in children with ASDs,” said Roberts. An 11-millisecond delay is brief, but it means, for instance, that a child with ASD, on hearing the word ‘elephant’ is still processing the ‘el’ sound while other children have moved on. The delays may cascade as a conversation progresses, and the child may lag behind typically developing peers.”
Read more about the study and implications for further research here.
