An estimated one in 68 children globally are affected with ASD - a wide-ranging group of neurodevelopmental disorders that often cause ongoing problems with communication, repetitive behaviors, and other symptoms that impair an individual's ability to function socially.
Early detection and behavioral interventions could significantly improve quality of life for people with ASD, but the full range of behavioral symptoms typically don't appear until children are two years old or later.
Previous study used MRIs to determine differences in brain anatomy that predict which babies would develop autism as toddlers.
Published in Science Translational Medicine, this paper describes a second type of brain biomarker that researchers and potentially clinicians could use as part of a diagnostic toolkit to help identify children as early as possible, before autism symptoms even appear.
According to the results of a new study, a brain scan can detect functional changes in babies as young as six months of age that predicts later diagnosis with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The scientists scanned the brains of 59 infants with high familial risk for ASD while they were sleeping using an imaging technique called functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI), and collected data on 26,335 pairs of functional connections between 230 different brain regions. This synchrony reflects the coordinated activity of brain regions, which is crucial for cognition, memory, and behavior, and may be observed during sleep.
The researchers then focused on brain region connections related to the core features of autism: language skills, repetitive behaviors, and social behavior. For instance, the researchers determined which brain regions - synchronized at six months - were related to behaviors at age two. This helped the researchers create a machine learning classifier - a computer program - to sort through the differences in synchronization among those key brain regions. Once the computer learned these different patterns, the researchers applied the machine learning classifier to a separate set of infants.
Of the 59 infants, 11 went on to be diagnosed with ASD at 24 months of age, which enabled the researchers to apply machine-learning algorithms to parse out specific brain patterns that correctly predicted nine of the 11 diagnoses without any false positives.
The first author of the study, said, "When the classifier determined a child had autism, it was always right. But it missed two children. They developed autism but the computer program did not predict it correctly, according to the data we obtained at six months of age."
First author added, "No one has done this kind of study in six-month olds before, and so it needs to be replicated. We hope to conduct a larger study soon with different study participants."
Although future work is needed to determine if the signature applies to infants without high genetic risk, the authors say their findings may be first step towards much-needed early detection measures for ASD.
http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/2017/june/predicting-autism-study-links-infant-brain-connections-to-diagnoses-at-age-2
http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/9/393/eaag2882
Detecting autism in infants before symptoms emerge
- 3,463 views
- Added
Edited
Latest News
New origin of deep brain waves
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Starving cells hijack prote…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Miniature battery-free epid…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Molecular causes of differe…
By newseditor
Posted 16 Apr
Cell's 'garbage disposal' h…
By newseditor
Posted 16 Apr
Other Top Stories
Why some women don't need pain relief during childbirth
Read more
Brain network mechanism causing spatial memory impairment revealed
Read more
Sex differences in human brain anatomy
Read more
Exhaled biomarkers can reveal lung disease
Read more
What happens around an Alzheimer plaque?
Read more
Protocols
MemPrep, a new technology f…
By newseditor
Posted 08 Apr
A tangible method to assess…
By newseditor
Posted 08 Apr
Stem cell-derived vessels-o…
By newseditor
Posted 06 Apr
Single-cell biclustering fo…
By newseditor
Posted 01 Apr
Modular dual-color BiAD sen…
By newseditor
Posted 31 Mar
Publications
The immunobiology of herpes…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Circulating microbiome DNA…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Spindle oscillations in com…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Oligodendroglial macroautop…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
COPII with ALG2 and ESCRTs…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Presentations
Hydrogels in Drug Delivery
By newseditor
Posted 12 Apr
Lipids
By newseditor
Posted 31 Dec
Cell biology of carbohydrat…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Nov
RNA interference (RNAi)
By newseditor
Posted 23 Oct
RNA structure and functions
By newseditor
Posted 19 Oct
Posters
A chemical biology/modular…
By newseditor
Posted 22 Aug
Single-molecule covalent ma…
By newseditor
Posted 04 Jul
ASCO-2020-HEALTH SERVICES R…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-HEAD AND NECK CANCER
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CAN…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar