Autism can be predicted?

According to the latest research, a unique wave brain wave that can be measured when children listen to words can reliably predict the development of young children under the age of 6 in a series of cognitive areas. In addition to guiding more effective therapies, this finding may also help reveal how early social capabilities contribute to language development. This is the most long-term forecast that can be achieved so far.

Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have begun to show signs of social and language impairments while they are still toddlers; for example, they cannot play with others or they cannot speak like Short sentences like "drink milk". Patricia Kuhl, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA, the lead author of the new study, points out that while scientists have long believed that the brain system independently manages these two types of disorders, there is increasing evidence that they are actually Intricately intertwined.

When pre-school children listened to the recordings of “kindergarten” and computer-generated tones, Kuhl found that preschool children with autism "actually prefer the sound of computer simulations." Kuhl pointed out that this lack of interest in human language is not only related to the severity of a child's autism, but also to the lack of typical responses from the brain in response to minor changes in syllables. "It's not a good thing," she said because "whether or not these minor changes can mean whether or not you can learn a language."

Previous studies have shown that when a typical, developing 20-month-old child hears a new word, there is a unique rise in brain waves in the left hemisphere of the brain. This phenomenon can be achieved through brain electricity. Figure (EEG) Detected - EEG is a non-invasive method to detect brain wave activity. Kuhl invited 24 two-year-old children with ASD to her laboratory. By giving the children a nylon cap with a sensor attached, the researchers monitored each child's brain activity. She and her team asked each child's parents to say words that their children are familiar with and to use strange words such as "Pint" or "guides" were mixed into the list of words that were tested on them.

Kuhl said that on average, these children’s brains did not show signs of rising when dealing with strange words. However, when she divided them into two groups based on the results achieved by these children in a standard social cognitive test, she found an amazing pattern. Children who scored lowest in social cognitive tests showed an abnormal response to unknown words - for example, their brains either did not respond or they responded in a completely different area, and those who received higher The fractional child showed a more typical pattern of brain activity in the left hemisphere of the brain.

The Kuhl research team discovered a measure of the brain, and its increasing relevance over time is "very exciting." Kristen Gillespie-Lynch, a neuroscientist at Staten Island College in New York, said: "This suggests that there may be some brain features that predict who will grow up healthily," added Elizabeth Redcay, a behavioral neurologist at the University of Maryland. Ideally, "this information can be used to adjust treatment interventions for children when they are very young, compared to existing behavioral interventions based on behavior." Debbie Mills, a cognitive neuroscientist at Bangor University in the United Kingdom, said that the results of this study are very consistent with other studies of how social influence affects language skills.