Brain Scan Can Detect Autism In Infants 166
kkleiner writes "A new study shows that brain scans can detect autism in children as young as 6 months old. Researchers at University of North Carolina's Institute for Developmental Disabilities imaged the brains of 92 children who were at high risk for autism. Scans were performed when the children were 6 months, 1-year, and 2-years old. At 2 years, the age when children are typically diagnosed, 30 percent of the children were found to have autism. The researchers then compared the brain images of the autistic children with the others. They saw differences in the brain's white matter, the axon-laden pathways that transmit electrical signals to distant parts of the brain. Of the 15 pathways analyzed, 12 were significantly different between autistic and non-autistic children."
Differences can be seen at six months looking back (Score:5, Informative)
The study results do not detect autism (which most people will read as a diagnosis). When looking back over the scans, differences from normal development could be seen starting as early as six months, but this is retrospective after it was diagnosed at the common ages. This study may at least provide some clues on how autism develops even if it doesn't provide a means of diagnosing it earlier.
Re:This is one of those things... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Brain scan introduces radiation into the brain (Score:5, Informative)
If I can recall correctly, brain scan does introduces radiation into the brain
Depends on the type. PET scans do have some radiation. The study in question - http://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=668180&RelatedWidgetArticles=true [psychiatryonline.org] used diffusion tensor imaging which is a variant of MRI, which uses strong magnetic fields and does't produce any radiation. The technique is essentially harmless.
Re:This is one of those things... (Score:2, Informative)
Our son was diagnosed with autism at just under 2 years old and put into early intervention preschool right when he turned 3. Between that and the things we've done at home, we now have a 9 year old he is doing well in a regular ed class with an aide and who will probably be able to graduate high school and get a job and hopefully live on his own some day.
If we would have known at 6 months old we could have gotten started earlier and he would be miles ahead of where he is now. The things that kids learn between 6 mos and 4 years about social skills are just so important, I can't even imagine how big of a deal it would have been for our son to know at 6 months instead of 3 years.
Re:Not early enough. (Score:3, Informative)
It's not even lack of empathy, it's lack of competence. As someone with Asperger's, and an IQ of 191 - I can safely say the smartest people I have met in my life have had Asperger's, a high functioning form of Autism. If you manage to weed out Autism you will also be weeding out some of the most intelligent minds that would otherwise come. Yes social skills are a bit less, from the perspective of others at least - to those of us with Asperger's (and this is a practically universal view amongst us) socialization is simply a lower form of thought that detracts from greater things. By all means though, I look forward to the day that freaks like like the OP will have produced eugenically manufactured retards being devoured by my Morlock progeny.
Re:Not early enough (Score:4, Informative)
Sure as hell I'd abort the fetus if they knew it was autistic.
Not only are they not productive members of society, they cost the taxpayers millions in entitlements.
There are already too many humans we don't need more broken ones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_figures_sometimes_considered_autistic [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_autism_spectrum_disorders [wikipedia.org]
When my 2 year old was showing signs of ASD, we mentioned it to our pediatrician. She pointed out her window to the Johnson Space Center (Houston) and said "don't be too concerned, half the guys over there are autistic, too."
I've had 8 years to philosophize about it, and I still stand by my initial position that, if there were a magic cure that would make my son "normal," meaning just like the middle of the pack people I knew in High School, I wouldn't want it for him. There are already enough "normal" people in the world.