Scientific Learning unveils software to help improve brain function in autistic children

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>> Priya David Clemens: computer sounds It looks like Zachary Mabert is playing a video game, but what he's doing is actually therapeutic. Zach has autism, which can make communication with him difficult.

>> I would really like it if you could actually show me an exercise and explain to me how --

>> Zach Mabert: No, no. I already did one. I already did one. I'm getting out of here.

>> Priya David Clemens: The software program he's working on seems to be helping his condition. Dr. Martha Burns, a speech-language pathologist, uses the program known as BrainPro in her practice. She says that people with autism don't develop the long nerve pathways that connect the major areas of the brain. For instance, attention often doesn't connect with memory.

>> Dr. Martha Burns: I call them the superhighways. So the superhighways don't develop adequately, so the brain, if you can imagine a city like New York City with lots of old streets that are cul-de-sacs, it would be very hard to get from one end of New York to the other. Well, the same thing seems to happen in autism. It's hard to transmit information across the brain, because you've got local pathways, but not these big, long superhighways.

>> Priya David Clemens: These exercises are known as BrainPro Autism. They were developed by neuroscientists at Scientific Learning in Oakland. They're specifically designed to drive the creation of those major pathways. Debbie Wechsler says she began to notice changes in her son, Zach, soon after he began the training.

>> Debbie Wechsler: He seemed to be gaining some capacity, both vocabulary and just processing of language. It's little things, like I don't have to repeat myself, or he understood a sentence that's longer and more complex.

>> Priya David Clemens: The evidence that BrainPro works for people with autism isn't just anecdotal. Researchers at Stanford University used brain scans to show the brains of children who struggled to read had less activity than quote, normal readers. But after training on the software for six weeks, the brains of the struggling readers showed activity that was much closer to the other children. Neurochemicals are key to that increased brain activity.

>> Dr. Martha Burns: Those neurochemicals are released in the brain when you are rewarded.

>> Priya David Clemens: Neurochemicals like norepinephrine, which enhances focus, and dopamine, which is released when people experience pleasure. Dr. Burns says the program could not work without the perfect timing driven by technology.

>> Dr. Martha Burns: The timing is occurring within a few milliseconds of getting the correct response.

>> Priya David Clemens: The correct response lands a reward, which stimulates the production of the chemicals.

>> Dr. Martha Burns: And that just drives these new connections to be made.

>> Priya David Clemens: New connections that can translate into real improvements in the brain and behavior of people with autism. Debbie Wechsler says Zach has never been able to sit through an entire movie.

>> Debbie Wechsler: I think probably maybe a third of the way through it I would have expected him to fade and just want to go out in the lobby.

>> Priya David Clemens: That is, until he did the brain training.

>> Debbie Wechsler: But I saw for the first time, that he stuck with a movie, the full length of the movie, and really was listening and processing what was happening in the movie. So that was huge.

>> Priya David Clemens: For SmartPlanet, I'm Priya David Clemens.

==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====