Accurately Predicting ASD at an Early Age

Autism is a chromosomal and developmental disorder that involves impaired speech and interaction. This disorder is has many different causes. Some are due to genetic mutation, environmental causes, having an immediate family member with autism, and many more. The most common cause is FXS. FXS stands for fragile x syndrome. Fragile x syndrome is a mutation of a single gene called FMR1 which resides in the X chromosome. Normally this gene contains DNA where a three base sequence is repeated 30 times in a row. The sequence is CGG. People with FXS the sequence is repeated up 200 times in a row. This changes the shape of the chromosome giving it a microscopic gap at the bottom of the chromosome. This can help doctors indicate FXS by looking at the DNA karyotype. Furthermore, A research done in the past revealed that 12 month olds with FXS displayed longer look durations and they take longer to disengage.

In Maggie W. Guy’s research titled, “Neural correlates of face processing in etiologically-distinct 12-month-old infants at high-risk of autism spectrum disorder,” examined 12 month olds at high risk for autism and measured their electrophysiological responses to face processing tasks. They tested “21 siblings of children with ASD (ASIBs) and 15 infants with Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), as well as 21 low-risk (LR) controls.” They showed the groups different faces and toys and noted how each reacted to the object or person they were looking at. They expected that there would be a distinct difference in the group with high risk ASD from the low risk group.  In other words they expected that ASIBs, FXS, and LR groups would display greater N290 amplitude to faces than toys. To their surprise, FXS showed the highest N90 amplitude and ASIBs showed the lowest. This may be due to “a greater orienting response toward face stimuli in infants FXS than is typically observed, and a more muted orienting response in ASIBs.” Although, there is a shared risk for ASD, the differences in stimuli response indicate that FXS and ASIBs reveal different neural patterns of attention and face processing.

Moreover, according to William Bosl, who is an associate professor of Health Informatics and Clinical Psychology at University of San Francisco studied 99 infants who were considered high risk for ASD who also had an older sibling with ASD and 89 low risk infants without a sibling with ASD. He measured them using EEGs because they showed “how the brain is wired and how it processes and integrates information.” Their results were remarkable. Their predictive accuracy was 100% by 9 months of age. In other words, they could accurately predict the whether or not a 9 month old has ASD. This age of accuracy is the earliest that has been found reliable.

All in all, like many other disorders, ASD is a disorder with many causes and each cause is just as different as the next. Each cause has different neural patterns and this produces different results. Using an EEG to determine ASD disorders is important because an EEG measures the electrical activity in the brain and brain waves and helps figure out how the brain is processing information. This is key because ASD involves intellectual impairment and is associated with neurodevelopment. Moreover, the results of this study are not only helping out with trying to find a way to detect the disorder earlier but also helping to find the causes of this disorder and finding it early could lead to solving the problem at an early age.

Work Cited:
Boston Children's Hospital. "EEG signals accurately predict autism as early as 3 months of age: Early diagnosis by 'digital biomarkers' may allow early intervention, better outcomes." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 May 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180501085140.htm>.