DTI Study Reveals Neurological Differences in Children with Sensory Processing Disorder

The results of a new study have shown that children (male and female) affected by the Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) have different brain connectivity than children without SPD.

The study used a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technique called Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) to study the children, and found that the changes in brain connectivity predicts challenges with tactile and auditory processing.

The researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF; San Francisco, CA, USA) published the results in the January 26, 2016, issue of the journal Frontiers in Neuroanatomy. The study included 40 right-handed children with SPD, and 41 right-handed children without an SPD diagnosis. The researchers compared white matter tracts in the brain of both groups of children. SPD can cause hypersensitivity to sound, touch, and sight, a lack of fine motor skills, attention challenges, and great difficulties with regulating emotions.

The children's Sensory Profile and Acoustic Index of the Differential Screening Test were characterized, and part of the Sensory Integration Praxis Tests were carried out to measure auditory and tactile processing. The researchers then used DTI to measure the structural connectivity of both groups of children. DTI measures the movement of water molecules in the brain, and maps the structural connections between regions of the brain by visualizing the direction of white matter fibers, and their integrity.

The results showed that the DTI scans were strongly correlated with the direct measurements of tactile and auditory processing during the neurological testing. This will allow clinicians to use DTI to calculate sensory challenges, assess patients objectively using quantifiable biomarkers, and provide personalized treatments.

Senior author of the study, Pratik Mukherjee, MD, PhD, professor of radiology, biomedical imaging, and bioengineering at UCSF, said, “By comparing the white matter in the brain of kids with SPD and typically developing kids, we were able to relate them to direct measurements of auditory and tactile function and find strong correlations between the white matter and sensory functioning. The children with SPD and the typically developing kids form a continuum, with the children with SPD at one extreme and sensory-typical at the other. This builds on the idea that SPD is a spectrum disorder and for the first time we have direct measurements, rather than solely relying on parent reports.

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