Sounds a little futuristic—diagnosing autism with a brain scan. In a small study of 60 adults, Dr. Christine Ecker of King’s College London was able to use an MRI to detect which adults had autism with 90% accuracy. The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Neuroscience, has several limitations. First and most importantly, the participants were all adults. The sample size was quite small, and we don’t know if the severity of autism will have an impact on the results. That being said, this could be a promising avenue of research. Imagine being able to diagnosed children at even younger ages, to being intervening even earlier!
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