Cognitive Aging Patterns in Autism: Parallel, Accelerated, or Safeguarded?

Purpose

Research in autism has historically focused on childhood, leaving cognitive aging in autistic adults poorly understood. This study investigated whether cognitive aging in autism follows similar or distinct patterns compared to non-autistic adults. We also explored how subjective executive function relates to objective performance across adulthood in these groups.

Methods

Fifty-six autistic and 106 non-autistic adults (19-69 years) completed tasks assessing processing speed, verbal short-term and working memory, episodic memory (recall performance and semantic strategy use), and executive functions (inhibition, flexibility), along with a self-report executive function questionnaire.

Results

Autistic participants scored lower than non-autistic individuals on measures of processing speed, episodic memory, and cognitive flexibility, and reported greater executive difficulties. Age-related effects were similar between groups across most domains, except episodic memory, which declined only in non-autistic adults, suggesting a safeguarded pattern in autism, linked to more efficient semantic strategy use in older autistic adults. For both the autistic and non-autistic participants, task-based executive function measures were negatively associated with age, while self-reported difficulties decreased, indicating a dissociation between subjective and objective executive function measures across lifespan.

Conclusion

Overall, the findings provide evidence for a parallel and safeguarded aging pattern in autism, arguing against accelerated cognitive decline.