After studying brain signals, researchers may have identified a pattern linked to why some autistic children and teens experience greater communication difficulties than others.
In a , researchers noticed differing patterns in brain activity as children were listening to words and trying to process what they were hearing.
鈥淚ndividuals with autism who have the most difficulty communicating and understanding speech, they have a higher level of neural noise,鈥� said Kevin Pelphrey, a University of Virginia School of Medicine professor and one of the study’s authors.
He compared neural noise to the static in a radio signal.
“If you’re trying to tune in and get a good sound coming through the speakers, if it’s kind of mistuned, then you have more noise,” Pelphrey said.
Individuals with autism have higher levels of that kind of background noise, Pelphrey said.
The new discovery will help researchers figure out better ways to treat the symptoms some children with autism experience.
“That’s exciting to us because for the first time, it’s kind of moving beyond simply describing autism, which you know is important, but really trying to understand what are the brain mechanisms involved in autism,” he said. “That will lead to us being able to actually do something about the symptoms, in this case the difficulties in processing speech.”
Pelphrey said being able to measure the amount of neural noise inside someone’s brain provides more insight into how they process speech and allows for more personalized care and instruction.
鈥淭hat would allow learning to happen much faster, much better, more extensive, so much better outcome for the child,鈥� he said.
There鈥檚 an additional benefit.
鈥淲e suspect that this inability to process speech also leads to a great deal of anxiety,鈥� Pelphrey said. 鈥淵ou know, imagine kind of like being in a crowded room and you’re really trying to understand what somebody’s speaking 鈥� it increases your anxiety in general and decreases your understanding of what’s going on in the world, which then leads to a lot of anxiety.鈥�
This isn鈥檛 likely to lead to a cure, but hopefully it improves the social communication abilities of some people with autism. This study is ongoing, and he said one of the sites where the research is still happening is Children鈥檚 National Hospital. They鈥檙e also looking for more participants.
鈥淎nybody interested in participating, they should just feel free to reach out to us,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e’ve expanded both to younger children than we studied in this particular paper, but also to young adults.鈥�
鈥淲e’re even getting very interested in aging and autism and trying to understand healthy brain aging using these same methods. So pretty much study anyone that’s interested across all age ranges.鈥�
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