Future Abilities of Autistic Kids Predictable
Future abilities of autistic kids predictable
Future abilities of autistic kids predictable
Future abilities of autistic kids predictable
A new study has shown that the pattern of brain responses to words in
2-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder predicted the
youngsters' linguistic, cognitive and adaptive skills at ages 4 and 6.
The findings are among the first to demonstrate that a brain marker can
predict future abilities in children with autism.
"We've shown that the brain's indicator of word learning in
2-year-olds already diagnosed with autism predicts their eventual skills
on a broad set of cognitive and linguistic abilities and adaptive
behaviors," said lead author Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the
University of Washington's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences.
"This is proved four years after the initial test, and regardless of
the type of autism treatment the children received," she said.
In the study, 2-year-olds - 24 with autism and 20 without - listened
to a mix of familiar and unfamiliar words while wearing an elastic cap
that held sensors in place. The sensors measured brain responses to
hearing words, known as event-related potentials.
The research team then divided the children with autism into two
groups based on the severity of their social impairments and took a
closer look at the brain responses. Youngsters with less severe symptoms
had brain responses that were similar to the typically developing
children, in that both groups exhibited a strong response to known words
in a language area located in the temporal parietal region on the left
side of the brain.
This suggests that the brains of children with less severe symptoms
can process words in ways that are similar to children without the
disorder. In contrast, children with more severe social impairments
showed brain responses more broadly over the right hemisphere, which is
not seen in typically developing children of any age.
"We think this measure signals that the 2-year-old's brain has
reorganized itself to process words. This reorganization depends on the
child's ability to learn from social experiences," Kuhl said.
She
cautioned that identifying a neural marker that predicts future autism
diagnoses with assurance is still a ways off. The researchers also
tested the children's language skills, cognitive abilities, and social
and emotional development, beginning at age 2, then again at ages 4 and
6.
The children with autism received intensive treatment and, as a
group, they improved on the behavioral tests over time. But the outcome
for individual children varied widely and the more their brain responded
to words at age 2 like those of typically developing children, the more
improvement in skills they showed by age 6.
In other studies, Kuhl has found that social interactions accelerate
language learning in babies. Infants use social cues, such as tracking
adults' eye movements to learn the names of things, and must be
interested in people to learn in this way. Paying attention to people is
a way for babies to sort through all that is happening around them and
serves as a gate to know what is important.
But with autism, social impairments impede children's interest in,
and ability to pick up on social cues. They find themselves paying
attention to many other things, especially objects as opposed to people.
Kuhl hopes that the new findings, published in PLOS ONE, will lead to
brain measures that can be used much earlier in development - at 12
months or younger - to help identify children at risk for autism.
Source : Jagran Post , 5th June 2013
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