Using brain waves to predict autism spectrum disorder in infants
Can brain activity show infants with autism?
Posted: 02/23/2011
By: Linda Hurtado
TAMPA - Watching two young brothers play at a park near Lowry Park Zoo, you would never know one of them has a common disorder that left him at one point unable to play and uncommunicative. Mom Kimberly LaRochelle explains, “We'd take him to park and all the kids his age and younger would be playing around, climbing and he'd just sit there. I would try to encourage him and he would just sit there.”
This mother’s gut instinct told her something was wrong with her infant. “It was so hard. It was just so hard knowing in your heart and struggling, what's wrong with my child what's wrong with my child.” Years and years of doctor appointments later, experts finally diagnosed Levi with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
A study in the journal BMC Medicine suggests that it may one day be possible to predict which infants are at risk of developing ASD based on patterns of brain activity. The authors studied 79 infants, some at high risk of autism. They measured brain waves as the children watched a researcher blow bubbles. The pattern in the high risk group was different.
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