Washington, June 23: A diminished ability of a young brain''s hemispheres to `sync' with one another could be a powerful, new biological marker of autism, according to scientists at the University of California,
San Diego Autism Center of Excellence.

With this novel imaging study of sleeping toddlers, one might enable an autism diagnosis at a very young age.

Eric Courchesne, professor of neurosciences at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, and colleagues in Israel and Pittsburgh reported that language areas located in the right and left sides of the brain are less
synchronized in toddlers with autism than in toddlers displaying either language delay problems or typical development. The strength of synchronization was associated with individual language and communication
abilities: the weaker the synchronization, the more severe the communication difficulties exhibited by the autistic child.

"Neural synchronization refers to the coordinated timing of neural activity across distinct brain areas," said Ilan Dinstein, a neurobiologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, a member of the
UCSD Autism Center of Excellence, and first author of the study.

"In a normal brain, neurons in separate areas belonging to a system with a particular function, such as vision or language, always stay in sync, even during sleep. Our study shows that in most brains of toddlers with
autism this ''sync'' is significantly weaker in brain areas that are responsible for language and communication abilities. Many things need to be set up right during brain development to enable normal sync between
different brain areas. The wiring between the brain areas needs to be right and the neurons within each brain area need to send and receive their messages properly," explained Dinstein.

"It would be a biological rather than a behavioral measure that could be used to diagnose autism at a very young age - around one year. The functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) scan would not identify all of
the individuals with autism, but it would be helpful in revealing the majority of individuals. The results also tell us that significant differences in the biology of language areas are apparent during very early stages of
autism development. It will help focus further research into the brain differences that underlie autism," added Dinstein

The study is detailed in the journal Neuron. (ANI)