Weaker brain sync, a new biological marker of autism

A diminished ability of a young brain's hemispheres to ‘sync’ with one another could be a powerful, new biological marker of autism, according to scientists at the University of California, San Diego Autism Center of Excellence.

With this novel imaging study of sleeping toddlers, one might enable an autism diagnosis at a very young age.

Eric Courchesne, professor of neurosciences at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, and colleagues in Israel and Pittsburgh reported that language areas located in the right and left sides of the brain are less synchronized in toddlers with autism than those displaying either language delay problems or typical development. The strength of synchronization was associated with individual language and communication abilities-- weaker the synchronization,  more severe are the communication difficulties exhibited by the autistic child.

"Neural synchronization refers to the coordinated timing of neural activity across distinct brain areas," said Ilan Dinstein, a neurobiologist, Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, a member of the UCSD Autism Center of Excellence, and also first author of the study.

"In a normal brain, neurons in separate areas belonging to a system with a particular function, such as vision or language, always stay in sync, even during sleep. Our study shows that in most brains of toddlers with autism this 'sync' is significantly weaker in brain areas that are responsible for language and communication abilities. Many things need to be set up right during brain development to enable normal sync between different brain areas. The wiring between the brain areas needs to be right and the neurons within each brain area need to send and receive their messages properly,” explained Dinstein.

"It would be a biological rather than a behavioral measure that could be used to diagnose autism at a very young age �" around one year. The functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) scan would not identify all of the individuals with autism, but it would be helpful in revealing the majority of individuals. The results also tell us that significant differences in the biology of language areas are apparent during very early stages of autism development. It will help focus further research into the brain differences that underlie autism,” added Dinstein

The study is detailed in the journal Neuron. (ANI)



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