WebMD Medical News Laura J. Martin, MD Feb. 22, 2011 --
Combining a standard noninvasive test that measures electrical
activity in the brain with a high-tech computer analysis may
help determine the risk of autism spectrum disorder in infants,
according to a new study. In the study, a computer program that
assists in evaluating brainwave data from an
electroencephalogram (EEG) was used to determine the way nerve
cells communicate with one another in infants. Using the data
generated, researchers were able to predict which 9-month-old
infants have a high risk of autism with 80% accuracy.
“Electrical activity produced by the brain has a lot more
information than we realized,” says researcher William Bosl,
PhD, of Children's Hospital Boston, in a news release. “Computer
algorithms can pick out patterns in those squiggly lines that
the eye can’t see.” These results are only preliminary, but
researchers say the technique could lead to less invasive and
much earlier determination of autism risk by picking up subtle