Autism predicted prior to symptom onset with MRI scans

Written by Lauren Pulling

In a new collaborative study recently published in Nature, researchers have used MRI scans in infants with older siblings with autism to predict onset of autism long before onset of symptoms. This study is the first to show that it is possible to identify which infants will be diagnosed with autism before behavioral symptoms can be assessed at 2 years of age. "Our study shows that early brain development biomarkers could be very useful in identifying babies at the highest risk for autism before behavioral symptoms emerge," explained senior author Joseph Piven (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill). "Typically, the earliest...

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