14 DAY TRIAL // Children are usually diagnosed with autism around the ages of 2 or 3, which is when the first symptoms of the disease begin to manifest themselves. However, a new study has demonstrated that brain scans can reveal the brain development abnormalities that lead to the onset of the condition at 6 months.
McGill University investigators used a brain-imaging method called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) for this study. DTI is a specialized form of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The team paid special attention to a measure called fractional anisotropy (FA), PsychCentral reports.
FA values reveal the extent of white matter organization inside the brain. Measurements are collected by studying the movement of water through tissue via DTI. McGill expert Dr. Alan Evans was one of the co-investigators on the new research, which is detailed in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
“The difference between high-risk infants that developed autism and those that did not was specifically in white matter tract development – fiber pathways that connect brain regions,” he explains.