INTENSITY²
Politics, Mature and taboo => AS Advocacy => ASD Related Links => Topic started by: Queen Victoria on December 03, 2010, 10:42:22 AM
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Wasn't sure where to put this latest news article, so I put it here. I'm unsure of how to react to this news. But, thought it might be of interest to the group.
THURSDAY, Dec. 2 (HealthDay News) -- A type of brain imaging that measures the circuitry of brain connections may someday be used to diagnose autism, new research suggests.
Researchers at McLean Hospital in Boston and the University of Utah used MRIs to analyze the microscopic fiber structures that make up the brain circuitry in 30 males aged 8 to 26 with high-functioning autism and 30 males without autism.
Males with autism showed differences in the white matter circuitry in two regions of the brain's temporal lobe: the superior temporal gyrus and the temporal stem. Those areas are involved with language, emotion and social skills, according to the researchers.
Based on the deviations in brain circuitry, researchers could distinguish with 94 percent accuracy those who had autism and those who didn't.
Currently, there is no biological test for autism. Instead, diagnosis is done through a lengthy examination involving questions about the child's behavior, language and social functioning.
The MRI test could change that, though the study authors cautioned that the results are preliminary and need to be confirmed with larger numbers of patients.
"Our study pinpoints disruptions in the circuitry in a brain region that has been known for a long time to be responsible for language, social and emotional functioning, which are the major deficits in autism," said lead author Nicholas Lange, director of the Neurostatistics Laboratory at McLean Hospital and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "If we can get to the physical basis of the potential sources of those deficits, we can better understand how exactly it's happening and what we can do to develop more effective treatments."
The study is published in the Dec. 2 online edition of Autism Research.
Dr. Stewart Mostofsky, medical director at the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Center for Autism and Related Disorders, called the study "intriguing." However, it remains to be seen if the test is sensitive enough to distinguish between autism and other developmental conditions that impact the brain.
"This is a very preliminary step and one that will require larger samples of children and a broader range of children with autism and other development disorders, particularly other developmental language disorders," Mostofsky said.
Also unknown is how old a child has to be for the deviations in brain circuitry to show up on the MRI. At birth, the brain's gray and white matter is largely undifferentiated, although this changes rapidly during the first 18 to 24 months, Lange said.
The specific type of MRI used is called diffusion tensor imaging, which offers information about the structure of the brain as opposed to how the brain "lights up" during particular activities.
Among the specific findings in participants with autism, the fibers in the right side of the superior temporal gyrus were more organized than the fibers on the left; the opposite was true in typical people.
"The left is language. Typical brains have nice, coherent, organized fiber structures," Lange said. "In those with autism, the left is less organized."
Researchers repeated the MRI test with a second set of participants and had similar success in predicting who had autism and who didn't.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more on autism.
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I've always felt like my brain's been wired up wrong. Some bits of it seem to work well, but the language, emotion and especially social skills bits have very obvious problems.
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I'd shudder to think what my brain scan would look like. :zombiefuck:
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I'm having a brain scan in a few weeks. hope they don't find anything too fucked up :laugh:
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I'm having a brain scan in a few weeks. hope they don't find anything too fucked up :laugh:
Do you mean you hope they don't find the fucked up part of your brain, or do you mean you hope your brain isn't too fucked up. :green:
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I had a SPECT scan for ADHD and they found enough on that for me to be diagnosed.
That was before I got diagnosed with HFA. It would be interesting to have that new type of MRI.
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So there IS a cure after all. :-\
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Doesn't say anything about a cure but it does for more effective treatments.
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Doesn't say anything about a cure but it does for more effective treatments.
For now. Once they know more about the logistics of the autistic brain, they'll do surgery and alter it. Trust me.
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Have you read "The Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon? That is fiction and is about a guy who has to make the decision about whether or not to have brain surgery for his autism.
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I had a SPECT scan for ADHD and they found enough on that for me to be diagnosed.
That was before I got diagnosed with HFA. It would be interesting to have that new type of MRI.
Based on Daniel Amens book (Healing ADHD?) with the PET scans, we started the Princess Royal on L-Tyrosine for her ADHD - Inattentive condition. It's made a difference in her ability to organize thoughts and organize things. The major difference is that her handwriting is literally chicken scratches without the L-Tyrosine and fairly legible with it. She's been on it for maybe 5 or so years and swears by it.
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I had a SPECT scan for ADHD and they found enough on that for me to be diagnosed.
That was before I got diagnosed with HFA. It would be interesting to have that new type of MRI.
Based on Daniel Amens book (Healing ADHD?) with the PET scans, we started the Princess Royal on L-Tyrosine for her ADHD - Inattentive condition. It's made a difference in her ability to organize thoughts and organize things. The major difference is that her handwriting is literally chicken scratches without the L-Tyrosine and fairly legible with it. She's been on it for maybe 5 or so years and swears by it.
Hey that is how I got diagnosed, I even have Daniel Amen's book, it is a good read. I know what he would recommend for me - more exercise.
I got diagnosed with types 2, 3 and 4 - inattentive, overfocused and temporal lobe.
I wonder if L-Tyrosine is available in Australia. I was thinking of starting SAM-E but it can't be taken when one is on antidepressants.
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I had a SPECT scan for ADHD and they found enough on that for me to be diagnosed.
That was before I got diagnosed with HFA. It would be interesting to have that new type of MRI.
Based on Daniel Amens book (Healing ADHD?) with the PET scans, we started the Princess Royal on L-Tyrosine for her ADHD - Inattentive condition. It's made a difference in her ability to organize thoughts and organize things. The major difference is that her handwriting is literally chicken scratches without the L-Tyrosine and fairly legible with it. She's been on it for maybe 5 or so years and swears by it.
Hey that is how I got diagnosed, I even have Daniel Amen's book, it is a good read. I know what he would recommend for me - more exercise.
I got diagnosed with types 2, 3 and 4 - inattentive, overfocused and temporal lobe.
I wonder if L-Tyrosine is available in Australia. I was thinking of starting SAM-E but it can't be taken when one is on antidepressants.
Ideally she should be on seratonin, but the powers that be have decided it's too dangerous for us. Oh well, the L-tyro works.
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Have you read "The Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon? That is fiction and is about a guy who has to make the decision about whether or not to have brain surgery for his autism.
Good book.
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I had a SPECT scan for ADHD and they found enough on that for me to be diagnosed.
That was before I got diagnosed with HFA. It would be interesting to have that new type of MRI.
Based on Daniel Amens book (Healing ADHD?) with the PET scans, we started the Princess Royal on L-Tyrosine for her ADHD - Inattentive condition. It's made a difference in her ability to organize thoughts and organize things. The major difference is that her handwriting is literally chicken scratches without the L-Tyrosine and fairly legible with it. She's been on it for maybe 5 or so years and swears by it.
Hey that is how I got diagnosed, I even have Daniel Amen's book, it is a good read. I know what he would recommend for me - more exercise.
I got diagnosed with types 2, 3 and 4 - inattentive, overfocused and temporal lobe.
I wonder if L-Tyrosine is available in Australia. I was thinking of starting SAM-E but it can't be taken when one is on antidepressants.
Ideally she should be on seratonin, but the powers that be have decided it's too dangerous for us. Oh well, the L-tyro works.
Why is serotonin too dangerous for you? ???
I have ADD traits but not enough to be diagnosed. Or that's what they said when I was dx'd with AS. Sometimes I think they were wrong and I have ADD too, and wish I could have amphetamines to fix my brain.