Dejian mind-body intervention improves the cognitive functions of a child with autism.

There has been increasing empirical evidence for the enhancing effects of Dejian Mind-Body Intervention (DMBI), a traditional Chinese Shaolin healing approach, on human frontal brain activity/functions, including patients with autism who are well documented to have frontal lobe problems. This study aims to compare the effects of DMBI with a conventional behavioural/cognitive intervention (CI) on enhancing the executive functions and memory of a nine-year-old boy with low-functioning autism (KY) and to explore possible underlying neural mechanism using EEG theta cordance. At post-one-month DMBI, KY's inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and memory functioning have significantly improved from "severely-to-moderately impaired" to "within-normal" range. This improvement was not observed from previous 12-month CI. Furthermore, KY showed increased cordance gradually extending from the anterior to the posterior brain region, suggesting possible neural mechanism underlying his cognitive improvement. These findings have implicated potential applicability of DMBI as a rehabilitation program for patients with severe frontal lobe and/or memory disorders.

Differentiating autistic children with quantitative encephalography: a 3-month longitudinal study.

The present study used a single-channel quantitative electroencephalographic (EEG) assessment to differentiate autistic children from normal control subjects. One hundred five normal and 17 autistic children participated in the study. In addition to amplitude measures of the frequency bands of delta, theta, alpha, sensorimotor rhythm, and beta and the theta to beta ratio, intra- (6 minutes) and intersessional (3 months) consistencies were also examined. The results indicated that autistic children showed significantly higher quantitative EEG amplitudes in many of the frequency bands than normal children; furthermore, their quantitative EEG activities were found to be relatively unstable within a 6-minute session compared with normal children. Discriminant function analyses revealed that absolute sensorimotor rhythm and beta amplitudes were the best predictors that correctly differentiated autistic children from normal children in the present sample, with a high accuracy rate of 95.2%. In addition, quantitative EEG measurements of normal and autistic children were found to be generally consistent across the 3-month period.

Differentiating Autistic Children With Quantitative Encephalography: A 3-Month Longitudinal Study.

The present study used a single-channel quantitative electroencephalographic (EEG) assessment to differentiate autistic children from normal control subjects. One hundred five normal and 17 autistic children participated in the study. In addition to amplitude measures of the frequency bands of delta, theta, alpha, sensorimotor rhythm, and beta and the theta to beta ratio, intra- (6 minutes) and intersessional (3 months) consistencies were also examined. The results indicated that autistic children showed significantly higher quantitative EEG amplitudes in many of the frequency bands than normal children; furthermore, their quantitative EEG activities were found to be relatively unstable within a 6-minute session compared with normal children. Discriminant function analyses revealed that absolute sensorimotor rhythm and beta amplitudes were the best predictors that correctly differentiated autistic children from normal children in the present sample, with a high accuracy rate of 95.2%. In addition, quantitative EEG measurements of normal and autistic children were found to be generally consistent across the 3-month period. (J Child Neurol 2006;21:391-399; DOI 10.2310/7010.2006.00094).