Instead, it will add another layer of detail to the clinical picture. “We’ve demonstrated both behaviorally and through these neurophysiological measures that there are pretty profound differences in how information is processed and how it’s integrated,” Molhom said.Īlthough the brainwave recordings have provided researchers with more insight into how the brains of children with autism respond to auditory and visual signals, Molholm doesn’t imagine that this technique will replace current methods of diagnosing children. In particular, children with autism processed multisensory information like sound, vision, and touch less quickly than typically developing children. In an earlier study, Molhom and her colleagues found a link between brainwave patterns - as measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG) - and the severity of autism symptoms. This approach tends to be very subjective and requires a clinician to have a great deal of experience.įinding a more objective technique could allow doctors to not only identify children at risk of developing autism earlier, but also to better understand how severely they are affected - and to provide treatments targeted to their specific needs.
“One of the goals of research on autism is to develop biomarkers that can allow us to identify autism very early, perhaps before some of the behavioral symptoms that are characteristic of the disorder can be observed,” said Sophie Molholm, an associate professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University.Ĭurrently, autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed based on observations of a child’s behavior and symptoms, including how he or she interacts in certain environments. The study, published today in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, is part of a push in the field of autism research toward identifying children at risk of autism earlier so that targeted treatments can be started at a younger age. The new research is several years away from being used in the clinic, but researchers have shown that the social and communication difficulties displayed by children with autism correspond to specific, identifiable brainwave patterns. Measuring how quickly the brain responds to sights and sounds could help doctors identify children at risk of developing autism, both earlier and more accurately.
An EEG brainwave test gives researchers a way to identify children with autism more accurately, since evidence shows that their brains process sensory information like sight and sound differently than those of their peers.
0 kommentar(er)
