Brain scans may be able to detect autism in children as young as six months old, according to a first-of-its-kind study happening in Minnesota.

“It was a really remarkable finding,” said Dr. Meghan Swanson, neuroscientist at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

The Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain in Minneapolis is one of five sites participating in the nationwide Infant Brain Imaging Study.

“We were the first study to do brain imaging of babies that went on to be autistic. We were able to show how autism both emerges and develops in the brain,” Swanson explained.

The study began in 2006, recruiting babies who have older siblings with autism, as they are more likely to be diagnosed later on themselves as well.

The participants undergo MRI brain scans at six months, one year and two years old.

“We were able to show that we could identify autism in the brain of a six-month-old,” Swanson said. “That had never been seen before.”

The initial study spanned almost a decade and included about 400 babies and their families.

Swanson said teams of scientists took meticulous measurements from the brain scans in order to identify the biomarkers for autism.

“I can’t point to the brain and say, ‘This is where autism is in the brain.’ It was much more about how the whole brain was growing together. These babies that went on to be autistic had faster growing surface area and cortical thickness,” Swanson said.

Now, researchers are replicating the study with 250 more babies across the country.

“This round of the study is called the replication, and it’s really the gold standard in science. When you have studies of really high clinical importance, we do this to make sure the findings are going to hold in a new sample of participants before the results are brought out to the broader community,” Swanson said.

Psychologists working with children with autism believe early diagnosis can be a game-changer.

“Early intervention can make a huge difference,” said Dr. Amy Esler, psychologist at the Unversity of Minnesota Medical School. “The median age of diagnosis in Minnesota is after age four. I’m often seeing children later in childhood after they’ve had a period of development where a lot of difficulties have become really established.”

Esler said early intervention offers children critical help with speech and behavior.

“Things like aggression, things like self-injury, if I could intervene on those things before they’re even two years of age, it’s much more likely that we can get them using other skills to replace those more challenging behaviors,” Esler said. “And by the time they’re eight, by the time they’re 16, we don’t see those behaviors anymore.”

Right now, in the home stretch of this study, the University of Minnesota is looking for five to ten more families in Minnesota to participate.

You can learn more about the study here.

If you are interested in enrolling your child in the study, send an email to IBIS@umn.edu.