By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on February 15, 2013
In a small initial study, researchers report functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows a particular type of behavioral therapy is correlated with positive changes in brain activity in children with autism.
Researchers from the Yale University Child Study Center used fMRI to measure the impact of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) on both lower- and higher-functioning children with autism. fMRI allows researchers to see what areas of the brain are active while processing certain stimuli in this case human motion.
Researchers compared pre- and post-therapy data from the fMRI scans of 5-year-old subjects. From this review, they saw markedchanges in how the children were processing the stimuli.
The study is foundin the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
The cool thing that we found was that these kids showed increased activation in regions of the brain utilized by typically developing kids, explained researcher and graduate student Avery C. Voos, one of the lead authors of the Yale study. After four months of treatment, theyre starting to use brain regions that typically developing kids are using to process social stimuli.
We can say that we have shifted the way these children are processing low-level social stimuli, and thats what we want, she added.
Theres a social deficit in autism, so any improvement toward social interaction really helps with development. Thats what makes this very exciting, and it speaks to the promise and success of PRT.
Pivotal response treatment (PRT) is a targeted technique meant to improve social engagement among children with autism spectrum disorders.
PRT forgoes the focus on specific skills, like block-building, to concentrate instead on so-called pivotal areas, such as motivation, in hopes of inducing a cascading effect with similar impact across multiple areas.
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Brain Imaging Suggests Particular Therapy May Aid Autism