Technology

Years of research in the Bioimaging Laboratory within the Bioengineering Department of the University of Louisville, in conjunction with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science and Norton Children’s Autism center, have demonstrated that specific regions of the cerebral cortex and their surface characteristics (known as “gyri” and “sulci”) may correlate to autism.

Results from a 2015 national study spearheaded by researchers at the University of Louisville were able to predict with 80% accuracy which children would develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by age 2 through an analysis of MRI brain scans at ages 6 months and 1 year—the earliest yet indicator of the possible development of the condition.

These brain scans revealed enlargement in specific regions of the brain and changes in brain volume, surface area, and thickness of the organ at both 6 and 12 months of age. A research version of the algorithm achieved an autism identification rate of 94%.

The team of researchers, which included 10 other institutions, credited their predictions’ accuracy to the algorithm that was applied to the data in classifying children most likely to meet the criteria for ASD by age 2. About 150 children were included in the research, and the subjects were limited to those considered at high risk of autism because of an older sibling’s diagnosis.

This leading research paves the way to predicting which children will develop ASD significantly before common behavioral symptoms emerge. Five years of age is the average age of diagnosis using conventional measures. “Autism by the Numbers” 2023, Autism Speaks, Inaugural Annual Report