With the help of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers have discovered that it may be possible to identify language development outcomes in the future for toddlers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
A problem with diagnosing and treating ASD is that it is generally heterogeneous, meaning symptoms vary widely among ASD toddlers as well as the manner the condition progresses for each. According to Eric Courchesne, co-director of the University of California, San Diego's Autism Center of Excellence and senior author for a study published in the journal Neuron, some children with ASD improve their language abilities as they age while others progress much slower or don't progress at all.
"It's important to develop more and new biological ways to identify and stratify the ASD population into clinical sub-types so that we can create better, more individualized treatments," explained Karen Pierce, Ph.D., co-director for the Autism Center of Excellence and co-author to the study.
In it, Courchesne, Pierce and colleagues describe their first attempt at coming up with a process with the ability to detect different subtypes in the brains of those with ASD that may aid in explaining various development language outcomes and trajectories. The researchers were interested in seeing if brain activity patterns in response to language will be able to predict and explain the level at which language skills in an ASD toddler will develop before the child actually starts talking.
Combining prospecting fMRI results measuring speech response at the earliest ages ASD is detected with comprehensive clinical and diagnostic assessments of language skills in three- to four-year-olds, researchers discovered that speech responses in ASD toddlers who end up with relatively good outcomes are highly similar to comparison groups without ASD. Responses were robust in the superior temporal cortex, the brain region responsible for sound processing which enables language to be understood.
The study represents of the first efforts at using fMRI for identifying neurofunctional biomarkers in a subtype found in very young toddlers with ASD. Pierce said that these subtypes aid autism researchers in understanding how people with ASD differ from each other, as well as how and why treatments are not always effective for all with ASD.
The study received funding support from the National Institute of Mental Health; the British Academy; Jesus College, Cambridge and the National Foundation for Autism Research. Other others include: Michael Lombardo, Kathleen Campbell, Lisa Eyler, Stephanie Solso, Cindy Carter Barnes and Clelia Ahrens-Barbeau.
Photo: Bridget Coila | Flickr
