A Smell Test May Help To Identify Autism, Study

It may be possible to diagnose autism by giving children a sniff test, a new study suggests.

People tend to inhale more deeply when they come across a pleasant smell, while they would reduce their breathing if they come across a smell that is found foul, according to nytimes.

However, children who suffer from autism spectrum disorder are unable to make the natural adjustment, said Liron Rozenkrantz, a neuroscientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and a researcher who is involved with the study.

Their findings were reported in the journal 'Current Biology'.

Their study was based on researching 18 children who had been diagnosed with autism, while 18 typically developing children had both pleasant and unpleasant odors. Their sniff responses were studied. While the 'good' smells included those of rose and soap, the unpleasant odors included sour milk and rotten fish.

While children who are typically developing changed their rate and pace of sniffing at once, within about 305 milliseconds, children who had autism reacted differently. Even as they sniffed new smells, the children watched a cartoon or played a video game.

"It's a semi-automated response," Ms. Rozenkrantz said. "It does not require the subject's attention."

The sniff test alone could at once point out which of the children suffered from autism 81 percent of the time. Moreover, "the further removed the autistic child's sniff response was from the average for typically developing children, the more severe the child's social impairments were," according to nydaily.

"We hope that it can be used as a diagnostic marker to diagnose autism at a very young age," Ms. Rozenkrantz said. "This is a nonverbal measure, and it only requires breathing."

However, more studies needed to be done before they could arrive at any conclusions.