What Is ASD?

ASD (autism spectrum disorder) is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects 1 in 59 children across America. It is characterized by the impairment of behavior and communication skills as well as a reduced ability to identify faces and facial expressions. The effects of ASD on the brain continue to foster curiosity amongst researchers studying the mechanisms of face processing in affected individuals.

Dr. Maggie Guy, an assistant professor of psychology at Loyola University Chicago, highlights the deficits in the processing of faces and other stimuli (i.e. novel and familiar toys) through her research with 12-month-old infants that fall into three categories: low-risk (LR) infants, ASIBs (siblings of children with ASD), and infants with fragile X syndrome (FSX, the most common cause of autism worldwide). Her research revealed that infants with FSX had the greatest number of N290 responses than LR infants and ASIBs. N290 is an event-related potential (which refers to neural activity triggered by a variety of stimuli) that is involved with recognizing and processing facial expressions. According to Dr. Guy, this trend in great N290 responses "does indicate that heterogeneous groups of infants at high risk of ASD process social stimuli differently from one another."

Moreover, when it comes to actually diagnosing children with autism spectrum disorder, a number of issues arise, with the primary one being that "doctors can't definitively diagnose the condition until babies are about two years old." Unfortunately, this is of great concern to parents of children with ASD as symptoms tend to present themselves at around 17 months of age. This means having to wait two years before parents can finally understand the delays in their child's development. Additionally, another critical factor that contributes to late diagnoses for children with ASD is that children are too young to have developed certain cognitive, "language and social skills" that are required in order to demonstrate the symptoms associated with ASD. As these children continue to grow and develop, eventually their symptoms will become more prevalent, but receiving a later diagnosis means missing out on the opportunity to attend early-intervention programs designed to improve the quality of life for those that are at-risk for developing ASD.

Above all, as we continue to witness an increase in the number of children in the U.S. receiving ASD diagnoses, we should utilize our resources and take advantage of research opportunities to examine the developmental deficits (and their causes and effects) observed in affected individuals. Through research like Dr. Guy's, we can gain a better understanding of the neural mechanisms and "differences in brain size and nerve growth" associated with ASD, paving the way for earlier diagnoses and, hopefully, the prevention of ASD in at-risk children.

Works Cited: 

Guy, M. W., Richards, J. E., Tonnsen, B. L., & Roberts, J. E. (2018). Neural correlates of face processing in etiologically-distinct 12-month-old infants at high-risk of autism spectrum disorder. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 29, 61-71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.03.002

Park, Alice. “Doctors May Be Able to Predict Autism Risk Much Earlier.” Time, Time, 15 Feb. 2017, time.com/4671862/autism-spectrum-disorder-babies/