Scientists believe they may be able to predict the future development of autism by measuring brain activity at just six months. A collaborative project involving some of the UK’s leading autism researchers has revealed that possible signs of autism can be detected in the brains of infants at a much earlier age than previously thought.
The project showed that, in their first year of life, babies who will go on to develop autism already show different brain responses when someone looks at them or away. It is hoped that this development may help pave the way for earlier diagnosis of autism.
The research was conducted at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London and was co-led by Birkbeck’s Professor Mark Johnson and Professor Tony Charman of the Centre for Research in Autism and Education at the Institute of Education, London.
Professor Johnson said that the study’s findings “demonstrate for the first time that direct measures of brain functioning during the first year of life associate with a later diagnosis of autism – well before the emergence of behavioural symptoms.”
At present, autism diagnoses are generally only made after the age of two, once typical behaviours associated with autism are starting to emerge.
Building on earlier research showing that the human brain shows characteristic patterns of activity in response to eye contact with another person, Professor Johnson’s team looked at six- to ten-month-old babies at greater risk of developing autism because they had an older sibling with the condition. Passive sensors were placed on the babies’ scalps to register brain activity while they viewed faces which switched from looking at them to looking away. The subjects’ responses tended to be measurably different to those of babies not at high risk of autism.
The response to eye contact is a key element in face-to-face social interactions and it is well documented that children diagnosed with autism show unusual patterns of eye contact and of brain responses to social interactions that involve eye contact.
“Differences in the use of eye gaze to regulate social interaction are already a well-recognised early feature in many children with autism from the second year of life and at present it is these increasingly well-documented ‘first signs’ that will alert parents and professionals to possible differences,” said Professor Charman.
The research team is keen to point out that not all babies who showed these differences in brain function were later diagnosed with autism and that further work is needed to refine the tests before they could be used accurately as part of a clinical test to predict autism in the general population.
“Future studies will be required to determine whether measurements of brain function such as those used in our study might one day play a role in helping to identify children at an even earlier age,” said Professor Charman.
