Nature

Brain scans taken of children as young as six months can be used to spot signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) before they reach the typical age of diagnosis.

Using MRI brain scans of 148 children – of which, 106 were at high risk of autism because siblings had the disorder – neurologists at the University of North Carolina applied deep learning algorithms to identify shared traits.


Why are we still treating autism like an epidemic? Healthcare Why are we still treating autism like an epidemic?

In particular, the academics studied the growth in brain volume of the children who were later diagnosed with autism and compared the findings to brain scans of children who were not. The children were monitored when they were six months, 12 months, and at 24 months old, at which point they were medically tested for the disorder.

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An increased growth in brain volume was found to be a likely indication that autism would develop and the team's algorithm was able to predict which of the children would develop autism with an accuracy rate of 81 per cent, suggesting autism could be detected before the diagnosis age of two.

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"We show that hyperexpansion of the cortical surface area between six and 12 months of age precedes brain volume overgrowth observed between 12 and 24 months in 15 high-risk infants who were diagnosed with autism at 24 months," the researchers wrote in the journal Nature.

Autism not on the rise -- correct diagnoses are Healthcare Autism not on the rise -- correct diagnoses are

The authors continued that the surface area expansion they saw was "significantly increased" in those children and "the finding of brain overgrowth in this sample of young children with ‘idiopathic’ ASD is consistent with emerging literature demonstrating brain overgrowth in genetically defined ASD subgroups".


The team was careful to point out this early brain growth may not solely be linked to autism – the characteristics may also be shared with other neurodevelopmental disorders – but the findings could have implications for "early detection and intervention" of spectrum disorders generally, and researcher Joseph Piven told the BBC there is the "possibility we can identify those who are most likely to go on to get autism."

A statement published by Nature alongside the work stressed that further research would be needed to show if the technique could be developed into a clinical method. This requires a much larger sample size and limited clinical testing.

The report is the latest development in the quest for more accurate detection of autism at a younger age. An app from researchers at Duke University analyses children's reactions to videos and is able to gauge whether they respond within usual patterns. Other research from the University of Buffalo tracks eye movement and determines in less than a minute if signs of autism are being shown.