Summary: New research indicates that brain‑wave recordings taken during routine newborn hearing screenings could reveal early signs of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Source: Rutgers University
Brain-wave measurements collected as part of standard newborn hearing tests may provide an early, objective marker for neurodevelopmental differences such as autism, according to a new study led by Rutgers University researchers.
The team analyzed auditory brainstem response (ABR) recordings taken from sleeping newborns during routine screenings. They found that infants who were later diagnosed with autism showed consistent delays in brainstem responses to simple click sounds. On average, those infants exhibited a 1.76‑millisecond lag in response timing compared with infants who developed neurotypically—a meaningful difference given that the auditory system works on microsecond timescales.
Because the brainstem helps relay and integrate auditory information with other sensory inputs—such as vision, movement and pain—these subtle delays could limit an infant’s access to certain sound frequencies and disrupt the coordination of multisensory information. That in turn may affect early social communication development and the acquisition of spoken language.
Published in PNAS Nexus and led by Elizabeth Torres, a Rutgers psychology professor and director of the New Jersey Autism Center of Excellence, the study suggests a path toward a low‑cost, universal screening tool based on ABR recordings. Such a tool could identify infants at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders much earlier than current practices allow, opening new opportunities for timely, targeted interventions.
“With minimal added effort and expense, we could implement a universal screening test that reduces disparities in infant neurodevelopmental care and establishes normative ranges for this dynamic process,” said Torres. “Measuring individual deviations from those ranges as early as possible is crucial because the infant nervous system is rapidly changing and forming the circuits that underlie later behavior.”
In standard ABR testing, clinicians deliver brief clicks to a sleeping baby while soft electrodes on the scalp record the brain’s electrical responses. Typically, clinicians average many repetitions and discard the variability across individual waveforms. In this study, researchers retained and analyzed those waveform fluctuations to detect subtle timing differences across trials.
To reduce non‑neural sources of variability, the researchers first standardized the recordings to account for anatomical differences such as head size. They then compared ABR waveforms from newborns who were later clinically diagnosed with ASD to matched newborns who did not receive such a diagnosis. The infants who later developed ASD showed consistently delayed ABR wave components and reduced access to certain sound frequencies.
Torres emphasized that, by the time many children receive an autism diagnosis—often at ages three years or older in the United States and sometimes much later in other countries—their nervous systems have already adopted compensatory patterns and alternative circuitry. Detecting atypical development in the neonatal period could allow clinicians and therapists to support sensory processing and learning while neural plasticity is greatest.
The findings offer possible explanations for early developmental differences observed in language acquisition, sensory processing and motor control—domains that are essential for social interaction and communication. They may also shed light on why some young autistic children display repetitive motions, increased motor noise, or heightened and unexpected responses to sensory stimuli.
The research team proposes that early identification using ABR—already widely used in hospitals for newborn hearing screening—could be expanded to produce a standardized digital biomarker for neurodevelopmental derailment. This biomarker would not only flag infants who may be at risk but also define concrete targets for personalized early interventions that align with the rapid, nonlinear pace of brain development during infancy.
“Repetitive or ritualistic behaviors often described in autism may in some cases reflect adaptations of a system operating with different timing and circuitry, yet attempting to communicate and regulate itself,” Torres said. “Our results encourage a rethinking of how we define and detect autism, shifting toward earlier, physiology‑based screening.”
About this neurodevelopment and ASD research news
Author: Press Office
Source: Rutgers University
Contact: Press Office – Rutgers University
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access. “Sensing echoes: temporal misalignment in auditory brainstem responses as the earliest marker of neurodevelopmental derailment” by Elizabeth Torres et al., PNAS Nexus
Abstract
Sensing echoes: temporal misalignment in auditory brainstem responses as the earliest marker of neurodevelopmental derailment
Neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, are increasingly diagnosed worldwide, typically after observable deviations from developmental milestones appear around ages three to four and a half years. By that time, brain circuitry has already followed an alternative trajectory. There is thus a pressing need for analytical methods that detect atypical development much earlier and identify actionable treatment targets.
This study integrates neonatal auditory brainstem response data, later clinical diagnoses of autism in those same individuals, and parallel ABR recordings from older infants and children with ASD to develop an early digital screening biomarker. The approach identifies temporal misalignment in auditory processing as a potential earliest indicator of neurodevelopmental derailment in neonates.
Beyond early detection, the work outlines specific targets for intervention and introduces statistical methods designed to guide personalized maturation pathways that align with the accelerated and nonlinear rates of change that characterize early infancy.