Brain Scans could Flag Children’s Future Mental Health Problems

It can take years to diagnose children with psychiatric or attention deficit disorders, forcing them to endure a lot of frustration and suffering. A new study led by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley and Northeastern University has found evidence that brain scans, if conducted early, can predict whether a youngster is susceptible to mental health or attention problems down the road.

The senior author of the study, Silvia Bunge explains that they found a signature of brain function in childhood that helps predict changes in mood symptoms over four years, and another one that helps predict changes in attention.