It is now possible to diagnose autism by Brain Scans. Scientists reveal that they use MRI to identify at-risk children, and are a step closer to curing autism by this technique. Heather Cody Hazlett of the University of North says that a Brain Scan for autism is a significant step in the biomedical research, but scientists are not on the brink of a new era in autism diagnostics as the process is very complicated, and requires further research.
How could brain scan predict autism?
Heather Cody Hazlett is a part of an extensive research project and investigates the development of infants who have an elder sibling with autism.
He says that autism runs in families, and infants are more likely to develop the illness than the babies who belong to the general population. Researchers can now identify kids who develop autism based on simple brain scans. The process is not complicated, and Heather will soon publish his findings. He aims to cure autism using brain scan and similar techniques. For now, MRI only predicts the illness, and diagnoses and full treatment are the major goals of the research. People with autism do not like to interact with others. Cody Hazlett says that they lack good communication skills, and potential early sign of the illness is temperament. He gave MRI brain scan to babies from six months to one year and found that the disease is present in 50% children.
However, he will find out if there is any difference between the brain structures of autistic and non-autistic babies.
Overall size of the brain changes
Hazlett says that the overall size of the brain changes. During his experiment, he first looked at the size of the brain. Then, he evaluated the total volume and its surface area.
Observations reveal that the average thickness of the cortex changes with time. Infants with autism have slightly larger brains than infants without the illness. However, these findings are not final as experts will carry out another experiment to prove the point. Hazlett will try different approaches to calculating the volume and surface area of the brains of children with autism.
