A simple 15-minute brain scan could help doctors diagnose people with autism by identifying structural differences in their brains. Scientists say the scans would speed up what is currently a long and emotional diagnostic procedure and allow the identification of at-risk children more rapidly.
"We know already that people with autism have differences in brain anatomy and some regions are just bigger and smaller or just different in shape," said Christine Ecker of King's College Institute of Psychiatry in London. "Our technique can use this information to identify someone with autism."
Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong condition caused by abnormalities in the development of the brain that affects around half a million people in the UK. The vast majority of these are male, and diagnosis usually involves a lengthy process of interviews and personal accounts from family and friends close to the patient.
Medical researchers at the IoP compared the brain scans of 20 adults with autism against those of 20 adults without. They found significant differences in the thickness of tissue in parts of the grey matter in areas of the frontal and parietal lobes which are responsible for functions including behaviour and language.
In the experiment, Ecker showed that her imaging technique was able to detect which people in her group had autism, with 90% accuracy. "If we get a new case, we will also hopefully be 90% accurate," she said. The research, supported by the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust and National Institute for Health Research, is published today in the Journal of Neuroscience.
"We know already that people with autism have differences in brain anatomy and some regions are just bigger and smaller or just different in shape," said Christine Ecker of King's College Institute of Psychiatry in London. "Our technique can use this information to identify someone with autism."
Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong condition caused by abnormalities in the development of the brain that affects around half a million people in the UK. The vast majority of these are male, and diagnosis usually involves a lengthy process of interviews and personal accounts from family and friends close to the patient.
Medical researchers at the IoP compared the brain scans of 20 adults with autism against those of 20 adults without. They found significant differences in the thickness of tissue in parts of the grey matter in areas of the frontal and parietal lobes which are responsible for functions including behaviour and language.
In the experiment, Ecker showed that her imaging technique was able to detect which people in her group had autism, with 90% accuracy. "If we get a new case, we will also hopefully be 90% accurate," she said. The research, supported by the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust and National Institute for Health Research, is published today in the Journal of Neuroscience.
It usually takes experts many weeks to diagnose autism. This research claims it can be done with a brain scan in 15 minutes by identifying the small differences in the brain, these are shown in the scan as blue and orange areas. Can you see why this might be controversial ? Autism is a fascinating area of psychological research and we will be going to hear Prof.Baron-Cohen, one of the world authorities, give a talk on autism in Cambridge at the beginning of December.
1) Do we think that this sample size is big enough to support their big claims?
ReplyDelete2) With 90% accuracy, what about the other 10%? Wouldn't we still have to carry out all the other barrage of tests to ensure that the person we have "diagnosed" falls into the 90% rather than the 10%?
3) Even if the test gave 100% accuracy, wouldn't we still need the other tests anyway? Brain scans arguably don't tell us anything interesting about the real problems in autism, in that they don't tell us how to direct treatment.
Saw some advert on television for a shaving product - the small print said 75% of a sample of 33 men agreed with the finding that this was the greates product ever (or whatever) - how's that for a sample size?
ReplyDeleteWell, in this case,Mr.Elder, size does matter. No conclusion can be drawn from such a small sample. the average sample for a meaningful result is approx. 800 -2000.
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