The technique, known as non-invasive brain stimulation, or neuromodulation, does not involve surgery, anesthesia or medication.
For children with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, options for improving social and communication skills are limited.
As speech therapies and behavioral programs can help some children develop these skills, but they rely on specialists who are in short supply — even in the richest countries.
Around 30 to 35% of autistic children have intellectual disabilities, according to studies carried out in the United States.
These children have less likely to receive treatment than those who do not have this condition, in part because doctors do not feel confident managing their needs and health insurance coverage for intellectual disabilities is patchy despite them having greater needs and placing heavier demands on their families.
It is a group that researchers often ignore.
This gap motivated a multidisciplinary group of researchers to test a different type of intervention: the use of short magnetic pulses and directed to stimulate specific parts of the brain.
The technique, known as non-invasive brain stimulation or neuromodulation, does not involve surgery, anesthesia or medication.
One device placed next to the scalp generates a rapidly changing magnetic field that passes through the skull without causing damage and stimulates the activity of underlying neurons.
It has been used for years in the treatment of depressionand researchers are increasingly exploring whether it can also help with the social and communication difficulties that are a core symptom of autism.
The version that the research team tested uses a technique called theta-burst stimulationwhich delivers the pulses in quick bursts rather than one at a time.
This makes each session much shorter than conventional approaches, which represents a significant practical advantage when asking young children to remain quiet and cooperate.
In , published at the end of last month in The BMJeach treatment session lasted only a few minutesand the complete treatment cycle took place over just five days.
One group of children received real stimulation; another received a simulated version. In sham treatmentthe equipment was applied in the same way and produced vibrations, but no active pulses were administered.
In this way, the researchers compared the results without either group knowing what they had received, which contributes to reliability of the conclusions.
194 children participated in the study, with an average age of around six and a half years. About half had intelligence quotients below 70which is usually described as the low operating rangealthough all registered values above 50 — the minimum necessary to guarantee a reliable diagnosis and meaningful participation in the study.
Parents completed a questionnaire about your child’s social communication before treatment, immediately after and again one month later.
The improvements observed after five days were maintained after one month, and the effect size was considerable in accordance with clinical research standards. The children also revealed progress in language skills.
No serious side effects were reported and all minor side effects resolved without the need for treatment.
Still at the beginning
Children were recruited at multiple locations through advertisements posted at outpatient clinics and from local clinical records. All legal guardians provided written consent.
Children with intellectual disabilities are so often excluded from clinical trials of this nature that evidence for your treatment has remained seriously insufficient. The fact that this essay included them, and in significant numbers, is in itself noteworthy. But this is just a first step.
It remains unclear for how long the benefits persist beyond one month, how many sessions would be needed to preserve them, or how this approach would work when transferred from a research context to a regular clinic.
Brain stimulation does not replace behavioral supportand the necessary equipment is neither cheap nor universally accessible.
But conventional approaches, when they exist, often require daily sessions over several weeks with a professional, which comes with its own costs in terms of time, money and specialist resources.
A five-day cycle represents a very different proposition. For families who are already overwhelmed, even modest, lasting gains in a child’s ability to communicate can be of enormous importance to them and their families—significantly improving their well-being and quality of life.
