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Sensory processing may help with autism diagnosis, classification

Classification of people on the autism spectrum as well as an earlier diagnosis could be improved by measuring how fast the brain responds to sights and sounds, according to recent study findings published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities.

“One of the challenges in autism is that we don’t know how to classify patients into subgroups or even what those subgroups might be,” Sophie Molholm, PhD, associate professor in the Dominick P. Purpura department of neuroscience and the Muriel and Harold Block Faculty Scholar in Mental Illness in the department of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, N.Y., said in a press release. “This has greatly limited our understanding of the disorder and how to treat it.”

Molholm and colleagues evaluated 43 children aged 6 to 17 years with an autism spectrum disorder to determine whether sensory processing varies along the autism spectrum. Participants were instructed to press a button after hearing a simple auditory tone, seeing an image of a red circle or seeing and hearing the two together. Researchers used continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) recording to determine how fast participants were processing the stimuli.  

Researchers found that the longer it took the participants to process the auditory stimuli, the more severe their autistic symptoms were. Similarly, a correlation was found between the speed of processing auditory and visual stimuli together with autistic symptoms. However, no correlation was found between visual stimuli and ASD severity.

“This is a first step toward developing a biomarker of autism severity — an objective way to assess someone’s place on the ASD spectrum,” Molholm said. “Using EEG recordings in this way might also prove useful for objectively evaluating the effectiveness of ASD therapies.”

The researchers added that EEG may also help in diagnosing autism earlier.

“Early diagnosis allows for earlier treatment — which we know increases the likelihood of a better outcome,” Molholm said. “But currently, fewer than 15% of children with ASD are diagnosed before age 4. We might be able to adapt this technology to allow for early ASD detection and therapy for a much larger percentage.”

Disclosure: See the full study for a complete list of the relevant financial disclosures.