5-Minute-Scan Detects Child’s Brain Development

A child’s mental development can now be recorded in the same way as we record height and weight.

Using a scanner and a mathematical program, scientists have learned to do it. In addition to tracking the dynamics of development, the invention can be used to detect early signs of schizophrenia and autism, the BBC reports.

Last year a group of scientists from the University of Washington School of Medicine published a study on the development of brain function with age. MRI was then used to track the blood flow and the movement of neurons. The conclusion was as follows: young children have their brain connections localized in specific areas. As they grow up, short-range connections are disrupted, and long-range connections develop.

This time a group of scientists have tracked the neurological development in 238 people aged 7 to 30. The brain was scanned, and the results were processed by a special program, rating the brain’s maturity. The author of the study Nico Dosenbach says that in a five-minute scanning they can get the data from 13000 functional connections in the brain that allows them to obtain an accurate result.