Brain Scan Can Detect Autism In Infants

kkleiner writes "A new study shows that brain scans can detect autism in children as young as 6 months old. Researchers at University of North Carolina's Institute for Developmental Disabilities imaged the brains of 92 children who were at high risk for autism. Scans were performed when the children were 6 months, 1-year, and 2-years old. At 2 years, the age when children are typically diagnosed, 30 percent of the children were found to have autism. The researchers then compared the brain images of the autistic children with the others. They saw differences in the brain's white matter, the axon-laden pathways that transmit electrical signals to distant parts of the brain. Of the 15 pathways analyzed, 12 were significantly different between autistic and non-autistic children."

Comments

Brain scan introduces radiation into the brain

[Taco Cowboy]

If I can recall correctly, brain scan does introduces radiation into the brain

What are they thinking?

Scanning the little brains of little babies will only do more harm than good to those babies

I do not object of performing brain scan on babies - but on those babies who may have cancer or other fatal illness in order to diagnose their condition

Autism may be serious, but at least, it's not a fatal sickness