Identifying Autism with Brain Traces
July 1st, 2012
“A simple brain trace can identify autism in children as young as two years old, scientists believe.
A US team at Boston Children’s Hospital say EEG traces, which record electrical brain activity using scalp electrodes, could offer a diagnostic test for this complex condition.
EEG clearly distinguished children with autism from other peers in a trial involving nearly 1,000 children.”
Ref: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18577327
I find it difficult to see a great need for this. Child neurologists and even pediatricians can detect autistic behaviors in children that young within a few minutes of meeting them. Other family doctors could be trained to do so as well. I feel like this is a public awareness issue that technology is trying to solve. At least it’s EEG, so there is no radiation emitted.
Is this just a stepping stone towards detecting autism in the fetus? Bring on the ethics debate.
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