Magnetic resonance imaging can be used to identify autism in high-risk infants — babies with older siblings diagnosed with autism — prior to 24 months of age, according to a new study published in the journal Nature.
The study enrolled 106 infants from across the country with older siblings on the autism spectrum. Researchers conducted MRI scans on the babies at six months, 12 months and 24 months of age. The MRIs revealed the babies who developed autism at 24 months — the earliest time autistic behaviors can be observed — experienced a hyper-expansion of brain surface area between ages six months to 12 months when compared to babies who did not display evidence of the condition at 24 months of age.
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"Putting this into the larger context of neuroscience research and treatment, there is currently a big push within the field of neurodegenerative diseases to be able to detect the biomarkers of these conditions before patients are diagnosed, at a time when preventive efforts are possible," said senior author Joseph Piven, MD, the Thomas E. Castelloe Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. "We haven't had a way to detect the biomarkers of autism before the condition sets in and symptoms develop. Now we have very promising leads that suggest this may in fact be possible."
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