Tulsa World: Brain wave study offers autism clue

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Brain wave research offers clues to autism

Parker Leiby, who is autistic, views a movie last week during a demonstration of the magnetoencephalography, MEG for short, at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. MEG is a noninvasive technology used to study unique brain wave patterns spotted for the first time in autistic children, which may help explain why they have so much trouble communicating. Joseph Kaczmarek/Associated Press

By LINDSEY TANNER Associated Press
Published: 12/1/2008 2:26 AM
Last Modified: 12/1/2008 2:44 AM

CHICAGO — Unique brain wave patterns, spotted for the first time in autistic children, may help explain why they have so much trouble communicating.

Using an imaging helmet that resembles a big salon hair dryer, researchers discovered what they believe are "signatures of autism" that show a delay in processing individual sounds.

That delay is only a fraction of a second, but when it's for every sound, the lag time can cascade into a major obstacle in speaking and understanding people, the researchers said.

Imagine if it took a tiny bit longer than normal to understand each syllable. By the end of a whole sentence, you'd be pretty confused.

The study's authors believe that's what happens with autistic children, based on the brain wave patterns detected in school-age children they studied.

The preliminary results need to be confirmed in younger children, but the researchers hope this technique could be used to help diagnose autism in children as young as age 1. That's at least a year earlier than usual, and it could mean behavior treatment much sooner.

The study's results were prepared for release Monday at the Radiological Society of North America's meeting in Chicago.

James McPartland, a Yale University autism researcher who wasn't involved in the study, said that finding biomarkers — such as the brain waves — that could enable earlier diagnosis and treatment is the "holy grail" for autism scientists. Now, doctors diagnose autism through parents' reports and by observation of behaviors that often don't emerge until at least age 2, he said.

The brain wave study used technology called magnetoencephalography, MEG for short. It measures magnetic fields generated by electrical currents in brain nerve cells, and it records brain activity in real time.

Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia had 64 autistic children ages 6 to 15 listen through headphones to a series of rapid beeps while under the helmet-like device, which recorded the brain's response to the sounds. Those brain waves, shown as highlighted areas on an imaging screen, were compared with responses from a group of non-autistic children.

In autistic children, response to each sound was delayed by one-fiftieth of a second.

"We tend to speak at four syllables per second," said Timothy Roberts, the study's lead author and the hospital's vice chairman of research. If an autistic brain "is slow in processing a change in a syllable it could easily get to the point of being overloaded."

Experts say one in 150 U.S. children have autism, a disorder involving poor oral communication, repetitive behaviors such as head-banging, and avoidance of physical or eye contact.

There is no cure, but behavior treatment and sometimes medication can lessen symptoms. By LINDSEY TANNER Associated Press

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Eric, Tulsa (12/1/2008 11:52:23 PM)

"Unique brain wave patterns, spotted for the first time in autistic children, may help explain why they have so much trouble communicating."

Hmmm...if we scanned the brains (assuming we could find some of them) of those in the state legislaure, do you suppose we could figure out why they have so much trouble getting insurance for kids with autism...or, for that matter, any help for our kids?

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