Detect autism in children by checking their reaction to smells.

Simply by letting a child smell something and observing their reaction, we can determine if they have autism.

Illustrative image, source: Internet.

Most people breathe more deeply when they smell something pleasant or limit their breathing to something unpleasant, but researchers say that children with autism don't have this regulatory mechanism. Autistic children will continue to smell whether it's something pleasant or unpleasant.

According to research published in the journal Current Biology, we can detect early signs of autism in young children with a simple, non-verbal test: simply having the child smell an object with a certain scent. This provides a basis for determining whether a child has autism when they are a few years older.

Professor Noam Sobel of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, says: “There are clear differences in olfactory patterns between autistic children and children without the condition.”

To prove this finding, the Weizmann Institute conducted a small but convincing experiment involving 36 children, 18 of whom were autistic and 18 who were not. These children were exposed to pleasant and unpleasant smells while researchers observed their olfactory responses. The average age of the study participants was 7.

Children without autism adjust their sense of smell within 305 milliseconds of exposure to a scent. However, children with autism do not make this adjustment. This difference in response allowed researchers to identify children with autism with 81% accuracy. They also indicated that the more severe the autism symptoms, the longer the child tolerated the foul odor.

Professor Sobel added: “We can identify autism and its severity with significant accuracy in less than 10 minutes with a completely non-verbal test and without any accompanying tasks.”

“We hope this discovery can become the foundation for the development of a diagnostic tool that can be applied very early, such as to toddlers just a few months old. Early diagnosis will allow for more effective intervention,” – Weizmann Institute of Science.

Researchers are currently examining whether observing people's reactions to smells could help detect other mental illnesses. They also want to determine when the earliest we can use this test on an individual.

Vo Ngoc Trung

Source: The Mirror UK