A panel of experts found that the brain activity of young children with autism appears to be out of sync in very early stages, a finding that sheds light on the biology of the condition and help a previous diagnosis.
In research published in the journal Neuron, scientists in Israel used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe the brains of sleeping children and found that certain types of neuronal activity are disrupted in those with autism.
That did not happen in normal children or other kind of delay in language development.
“What we see is how the activity is synchronized,” said Ilan Dinstein, Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, who led the study.
“And we found that the timing was different, especially in young children with autism, and in areas of the hemispheres (brain) associated with language and communication,” he said.
Autism is a complex and mysterious brain disorder that usually first diagnosed in early childhood. It is characterized by difficulties in social interaction, communication and understanding of emotions and behaviors of others.
Autism spectrum disorders are diagnosed in up to one in 100 children in the U.S. and Europe, affecting four times more men than women.
The condition is often misdiagnosed, and doctors are eager to find biological measures to help detect the problem and make more accurate diagnosis.
“There is a tremendous amount of misdiagnoses, in many ways,” said Dinstein.
“An autistic child may appear a year and a half, to 3 years can end up with language delays or other problems of development. Therefore, one of the reasons for seeking a biological measurement is to clarify the issue of very early diagnosis, “he said.
The human brain is divided into two separate hemispheres, which are nearly symmetrical in terms of anatomy and function. Dinstein explains that neural activity persists even during sleep and in a typical brain, that normally translates into certain patterns.
Scientists believe that the strength of synchronization between functionally related areas in the right and left hemispheres would be a measure of how well the brain is working.
Dinstein’s team recorded brain activity as small-to normal course, language delay and autism-sleeping.
The results showed a specific abnormality in the timing between two brain areas commonly associated with language and communication in 70% of children with autism, but only a handful of children with normal development or language delay.
Dinstein said that as a potential diagnostic tool, this biological measure is “a first step.” He added that another useful aspect of this measurement is its ability to be taken during sleep, which avoids the problems of having to make very young children to cooperate in the test.
