MRIs may detect autism in high-risk babies under 12 months old, according to new research.
In what’s been deemed a first-of-its-kind study, scientists predicted which infants would become diagnosed with autism at 2 years old.
According to a study published this week in Nature, researchers used the scans to examine babies’ brains at 6 months, 12 months and 24 months. All the toddlers had older siblings with the condition, which puts the younger children at higher risk for being diagnosed with autism.
The scans showed significant growth in the brain volumes of babies who would go on to meet the autism criteria at 2 years old. Using this benchmark, researchers correctly predicted that 80 percent of the babies monitored in the study would be diagnosed with the condition at 24 months of age.
“We haven’t had a way to detect the biomarkers of autism before the condition sets in and symptoms develop,” Dr. Joseph Piven, senior author of the study, said in a statement. “Now we have very promising leads that suggest this may in fact be possible.”
MRIs use low-energy radio waves to scan, and are safe for infants.
Since babies’ brains are so malleable, early detection is key in order to employ intervention strategies that could help improve the condition, which prove more successful than treatments that only begin after diagnosis. Currently, autism isn’t diagnosed until symptoms appear at 2 or 3 years old.
Approximately 1 out of 68 children in the US is diagnosed with autism, and babies whose older siblings have the disorder have a 1 in 5 chance of being diagnosed themselves. At least 3 million people in the US have autism.