Detecting autism earlier

Piven
June 11, 2019
By Shellie

A multicenter research team led jointly by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a five-year, $9.5 million grant to further evaluate whether brain imaging can help detect very high risk of autism spectrum disorder in early infancy. Researchers believe that if they can detect evidence of the disorder earlier, behavioral interventions can begin sooner than currently possible, which may help improve outcomes for affected children.

The research team, led by Dr. John R. Pruett, an associate professor of child psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine, and by Dr. Joseph Piven, the Thomas E. Castelloe Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Psychology at UNC-Chapel Hill, will scan the brains of 250 infants in North America.

Read the full story at UNC.edu to learn how this study will hopefully lead to identifying autism spectrum disorder at an early age, before symptoms of autism are present or consolidated into a diagnosis.