According to researchers at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, a brain scan can predict a child’s future language development after the child is known to be suffering from autism spectrum disorder. Published in the online edition of the journal Neuron, the study has established a strong relationship between irregularities in speech activation of the temporal cortex area of the brain and actual language ability in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder.

“We wanted to see if patterns of brain activity in response to language can explain and predict how well language skills would develop in a toddler with ASD before that toddler actually began talking”, said Eric Courchesne, a professor of neurosciences and co-director of the Autism Center of Excellence at UCSD.

Scientists face challenges because autism occurs in a variety of ways and it’s a very difficult task to detect it in very young children.

Courchene said some individuals could not talk appropriate throughout their life – they are the ones who display high levels of symptom severity and clinical outcomes for them are highly likely to be poor. There are others as well who display delayed early language development, but after sometime they begin acquiring language skills and yield relatively more positive clinical outcomes.

According to Karen Pierce, associate professor of neurosciences and co-director of the Autism Center of Excellence, there is an immense need of developing new biological ways that can easily identify and stratify the ASD population into clinical sub-types. This will provide a significant help in providing patients with better and individualized treatments.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Foundation for Autism Research, Jesus College of Cambridge and the British Academy.