供图：《时代周刊》杂志（Time Magazine）
Study shows 90% success rate in detecting adult males with ASD, and researches hope the simple technique will rapidly identify children at risk
研究显示对患有泛自闭症障碍（ASD）的成年男性进行检测的成功率已能达到90%，同时研究人员希望这项简易的技术能够尽快用于识别具有自闭症倾向的儿童。
A simple 15-minute brain scan could help doctors diagnose people with autism by identifying structural differences in their brains. Scientists say the scans would speed up what is currently a long and emotional diagnostic procedure and allow the identification of at-risk children more rapidly.
15分钟的简便大脑扫描，通过识别人们大脑的结构差异，可能能够帮助医生诊断自闭症患者。科学家称，目前用于诊断自闭症的情绪诊断程序耗时较长，大脑扫描将能够快速地进行诊断，并且使得医生能够更为快速地识别出具有自闭症倾向的儿童。
"We know already that people with autism have differences in brain anatomy and some regions are just bigger and smaller or just different in shape," said Christine Ecker of King's College Institute of Psychiatry in London. "Our technique can use this information to identify someone with autism."
“我们已经知道，自闭症患者在大脑解剖结构上与一般人存在差异，一些大脑脑区要么大一点要么小一点，或者在形状上存在差异，”英国伦敦国王学院精神病学研究所（King's College Institute of Psychiatry）的克莉斯汀·艾克尔（Christine Ecker）说。“我们的技术能够通过这些差异信息来识别自闭症患者。”
Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong condition caused by abnormalities in the development of the brain that affects around half a million people in the UK. The vast majority of these are male, and diagnosis usually involves a lengthy process of interviews and personal accounts from family and friends close to the patient.
泛自闭症障碍（ASD）是大脑发育异常造成的一种终生的症状，这种症状大约影响着英国50万人的生活。绝大部分自闭症患者是男性，目前的诊断通常包含一个漫长的面谈过程，以及来自与患者关系亲密的家人朋友的个人描述。
Medical researchers at the IoP compared the brain scans of 20 adults with autism against those of 20 adults without. They found significant differences in the thickness of tissue in parts of the grey matter in areas of the frontal and parietal lobes which are responsible for functions including behaviour and language.
国王学院精神病学研究所的医学研究人员对20名成人自闭症患者的大脑扫描结果与20名正常成人的大脑扫描结果进行比较。他们发现在大脑额叶与顶叶区域的灰质部分，两组人群该组织的厚度存在显著差异，大脑额叶与顶叶区域负责包括行为与语言在内的功能。
In the experiment, Ecker showed that her imaging technique was able to detect which people in her group had autism, with 90% accuracy. "If we get a new case, we will also hopefully be 90% accurate," she said. The research, supported by the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust and National Institute for Health Research, is published today in the Journal of Neuroscience.
在这个实验中，艾克尔表明，她的成像技术能够以高达90%的准确率检测出参与她实验的人中哪些人患有自闭症。“如果给我们一个新的病例，我们也非常有希望达到90%的准确率，”她说。这项研究由英国医学研究委员会（MRC）、维康信托基金会（Wellcome Trust）与英国国家健康研究所（National Institute for Health Research）资助，研究报告于昨天发表在《神经科学杂志》（Journal of Neuroscience）上。
Declan Murphy, professor of psychiatry and brain maturation at the IoP said the new method would help people with ASD to be diagnosed more quickly and cost effectively. "Most importantly, their diagnosis will be based on an objective "biomarker" and not simply on the opinion of a clinician, which is formed after an interview. Simply being diagnosed means patients can take the next steps to get help and improve their quality of life."
国王学院精神病学研究所精神病学与大脑成熟专业教授德克兰·墨菲（Declan Murphy）说，这项新方法将帮助泛自闭症障碍患者更快速更实惠地得到诊断。“最重要的是，他们得到的诊断将基于一种客观的‘生物指标’，而不是简单地基于面谈后临床医生形成的个人意见。通过大脑扫描进行简便的诊断，意味着患者能够尽早地去寻求帮助，并提高他们的生活质量。”
Uta Frith, emeritus professor of cognitive development at University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, said: "This study shows that the subtle brain abnormalities associated with autism show a distinctive pattern. However, it will need many more studies before the technique used in this study can be used for diagnosis. It is crucial that we learn more about what the brain abnormalities mean. The authors in the paper itself say their results are preliminary and serve as 'proof of concept' rather than a definitive means of diagnosis."
英国伦敦大学学院（UCL）认知神经研究所（Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience）认知发展专业荣誉教授弗里斯（Uta Frith）说：“这项研究表明，与自闭症相关的细微的大脑异常显现出了一种独特的模式。不过，在这项研究采用的技术能够被用于临床诊断之前，还需要进行更多的研究。重要的是，对于大脑异常意味着什么，通过这项研究我们了解的更多了。这篇论文的作者自己也说，他们的结论还只是初步的，起到的是‘概念验证’的作用，而不是诊断的确切方法。”
Ecker found there was a correlation between the severity of a person's autism and the amount of structural difference observed in their brain scans, compared with the control group. "We can see that, on the basis of the brain scan, some brains are simply located quite far away from the 'control' brain, whereas some are more like the controls, so the autism wouldn't be that severe."
艾克尔发现，与正常控制组相比，一个人自闭症症状的严重程度与大脑扫描中观察到的结构差异的多少存在相关性。“我们能够看到，在大脑扫描的基础上，一些大脑与正常控制组的大脑相比相差很大，而有些大脑又与正常控制组的大脑很接近，所以这些比较接近正常人大脑的患者，他们的自闭症症状将不会那么严重。”
The IoP team scanned the brains of 20 healthy men and 20 men with ASD, aged between 20 and 68 years. The men with ASD had already been diagnosed by traditional methods, which includes IQ tests, a psychiatric interview, physical examinations and a blood test. Once all the brains had been imaged using a standard clinical MRI scanner, the pictures were analysed for differences using a technique called pattern classification, which is widely used in facial recognition technology but has not, until now, been used on brain scans.
国王学院精神病学研究所的研究团队分别对20名健康男性与20名患有泛自闭症障碍的男性的大脑进行扫描，他们的年龄在20岁到68岁之间。患有泛自闭症障碍的男性已经经由传统的方法进行诊断了，诊断中包括智商（IQ）测验、一项精神科访谈、体格检查以及血液化验。一旦所有人的大脑通过标准的临床磁共振（MRI）扫描仪进行成像后，将采用一种称为模式分类的技术对大脑图像的差异进行分析。这种技术被广泛用于面孔识别领域，直到这项研究才被用于分析大脑扫描图像。
So far, Ecker's team has only looked at men but there are plans to extend the work to women and children. "We think this approach will work even better with kids because the brain abnormalities you see in autism develop over the life span and they're most prominent during childhood," she said. "If we can get up to 90% accuracy in adults, we think it'll be even better in kids."
目前，艾克尔的研究团队还仅仅只考察了男性，不过他们也已经计划将他们的研究扩展到女性与儿童身上。“我们认为这种方法在儿童身上的效果甚至会更好，因为你在已被诊断为自闭症的患者大脑中看到的异常，已经经过了多年的发展与弥补，而在儿童时期这种差异是最显著的，”她说。“如果我们能够在成人身上获得高达90%的准确率，那么我们认为在儿童身上的准确率将会更高。”
Carol Povey, director of the National Autistic Society's Centre for Autism, said the study gave a valuable insight into the way people with autism process and understand the world around them. "Eventually, the researchers hope that brain scans might also be a useful diagnostic tool. While further testing is still required, any tools which could help identify autism at an earlier stage, have the potential to improve a person's quality of life by allowing the right support to be put in place as soon as possible."
英国国家自闭症学会（National Autistic Society）自闭症中心（Centre for Autism）主任卡罗尔·波维（Carol Povey）说，这项研究为深入了解自闭症患者如何加工与理解他们周围的世界提供了极有价值的信息。“最后，研究人员还希望大脑扫描的方法成为一种有用的诊断工具。虽然仍然还需要进行更深入的研究，不过任何能够帮助在更早的年龄段识别自闭症的工具，都将具有提高一个人生活质量的潜力，只要合适的支持能尽快到位。”
She added: "However, diagnosis is only the first step. At the National Autistic Society, we frequently receive calls from people who have struggled to get support, leaving them anxious, frustrated and in some cases depressed or even suicidal. Research that improves our understanding of autism, is therefore part of a wider struggle to enable people with autism to access appropriate support at every stage of their life."
她说：“然而，诊断仅仅只是第一步。在国家自闭症学会，我们频繁地接到民众的电话，他们挣扎着希望得到支持，但他们得到的只是焦虑与挫败感，还有一些人最终十分抑郁或者甚至自杀。所以能够提高我们对自闭症的认识的研究，也是为了让自闭症患者能够在他们生命的每个阶段获得适当支持的广泛努力中的一部分。”
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