Science News: Brain imaging may help diagnose ASD

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Researchers found that children with ASD process sound 11 msec slower than NT children.
In the future brain imaging may help diagnosing ASD.

Here's the news article:
ScienceDaily - Brain imaging may help diagnose autism


edit:

I just found the abstract of the published article:

MEG detection of delayed auditory evoked responses in autism spectrum disorders: towards an imaging biomarker for autism
ABSTRACT
Motivated by auditory and speech deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), the frequency dependence of superior temporal gyrus (STG) 50 msec (M50) and 100 msec (M100) neuromagnetic auditory evoked field responses in children with ASD and typically developing controls were evaluated. Whole-cortex magnetoencephalography (MEG) was obtained from 17 typically developing children and 25 children with ASD. Subjects were presented tones with frequencies of 200, 300, 500, and 1,000 Hz, and left and right STG M50 and M100 STG activity was examined. No M50 latency or amplitude Group differences were observed. In the right hemisphere, a Group×Frequency ANOVA on M100 latency produced a main effect for Group (P=0.01), with an average M100 latency delay of 11 msec in children with ASD. In addition, only in the control group was the expected association of earlier M100 latencies in older than younger children observed. Group latency differences remained significant when hierarchical regression analyses partialed out M100 variance associated with age, IQ, and language ability (all P-values <0.05). Examining the right-hemisphere 500 Hz condition (where the largest latency differences were observed), a sensitivity of 75%, a specificity of 81%, and a positive predictive value (PPV) of 86% was obtained at a threshold of 116 msec. The M100 latency delay indicates disruption of encoding simple sensory information. Given similar findings in language impaired and nonlanguage impaired ASD subjects, a right-hemisphere M100 latency delay appears to be an electrophysiological endophenotype for autism.

Way cool! At last, an objective measure. Only one problem I see; can there be more than one condition that will produce this delay in verbal processing? How does one do a differential test?

ruveyn

This could be a breakthrough! Thank you for posting this.

So we think first?

This is good stuff,

Wow, frequently it seems to me that I remember what people say, rather than hearing it as they say it; and now a plausible explanation surfaces.

Processing delays topic

The two aspects of the brain mentioned that appear to be involved in this delay are closely connected.

A study of these structures and how they co-ordinate functioning is needed.

I was told this in lay language the other day by a neuropsychiatrist, but the technical language is more interesting and objective.

Thanks. .