Brain scans may give warning about mental problems in kids

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- A quick MRI scan can spot mental developmental problems in kids, thus giving a warning if a child's brain growth is behind schedule, a new study suggests.

Using MRI technology that detects which areas of the brain are most active based on their usage of oxygen, U.S. researchers scanned 238 volunteers aged 7 to 30. They compiled the results and developed a baseline of what the brains of people should look like as they grow older.

The findings, which are published in the September issue of Science, could allow doctors to measure whether a patient's brain has matured to the level it should have reached based on his or her age, said study co-author Dr. Bradley L. Schlaggar, an associate professor of developmental neurology at Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children's Hospital.

"It's a way to understand individual differences and make predictions about an individual's neurologic and psychological health," he said. "The earlier you can intervene, the more likely it is that you'll benefit a patient."

Currently, brain scans don't play a major role in the treatment of mental illness, said Schlaggar.

It's possible to find a tumor or diagnose a stroke with the help of a brain scan, he said, but the technology almost always fails to reveal any problems in the brain of a person who has a disorder like autism, schizophrenia or epilepsy. "That's vexing," he said, "because you know that something is wrong with the brain, but the report is normal."

In addition to diagnosing a problem in the brain, brain scans could also help gauge whether a treatment is working, said Dr. Paul R. Carney, chief of pediatric neurology at the University of Florida.

If a 7-year-old child has a frontal lobe that looks like that of a 5-year-old, for example, doctors could turn to learning therapies designed to boost that part of the brain, said Carney, who's familiar with the findings.

"Right now, most learning techniques don't speak to a specific brain network," Carney said. "But here, you'd be able to design a therapy and measure the response."

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