The cognitive profile of middle-aged and older adults with high vs. low autistic traits.

Researchers studied thinking skills in older adults (50-80 years) with high autism traits compared to those with low traits. Adults with high autism traits had more difficulty with memory, attention, and processing information quickly. However, they performed similarly on simple attention tasks and reasoning. The differences remained even when accounting for age, depression, and anxiety.

This cross-sectional study examined cognitive performance in 22,285 adults aged 50-80 years from the online PROTECT cohort, comparing those with high autistic traits (n=325, ~1%) to matched controls (n=11,744). Participants with high autistic traits showed significantly lower performance on memory, working memory, sustained attention, and information processing speed tasks compared to controls. No differences were found in simple attention or verbal reasoning. The cognitive performance differences persisted after controlling for age, depression, and anxiety symptoms.

Participants with high autistic traits also self-reported more cognitive decline, though this difference was not significant when depression was controlled for or when using informant reports.

Older adults with high autistic traits may benefit from targeted cognitive assessments and support strategies, particularly for memory and attention difficulties. Clinicians should consider autism-specific cognitive profiles when developing interventions for this population.

Cross-sectional design prevents conclusions about age-related cognitive changes. Online assessment format may not capture full cognitive profile. Self-reported autistic traits rather than clinical diagnosis. Small proportion of high autistic trait participants (1%) may limit generalizability.

Cognitive differences in memory, information processing speed (IPS), and executive functions (EF), are common in autistic and high autistic trait populations. Despite memory, IPS and EF being sensitive to age-related change, little is known about the cognitive profile of older adults with high autistic traits. This study explores cross-sectional memory, IPS and EF task performance in a large sample of older adults in the online PROTECT cohort (n = 22,285, aged 50-80 years), grouped by high vs. low autistic traits. Approximately 1% of PROTECT participants (n = 325) endorsed high autistic traits [henceforth Autism Spectrum Trait (AST) group].

Differences between AST and age-, gender-, and education-matched comparison older adults (COA; n = 11,744) were explored on memory, IPS and EF tasks and questionnaires administered online. AST had lower performance than COA on tasks measuring memory, working memory, sustained attention, and information processing. No group differences were observed in simple attention or verbal reasoning. A similar pattern of results was observed when controlling for age, and current depression and anxiety symptoms.

In addition, AST self-reported more cognitive decline than COA, but this difference was not significant when controlling for current depression symptoms, or when using informant-report. These findings suggest that autistic traits are associated with cognitive function in middle-aged and later life. Older adults with high autistic traits experienced more performance difficulties in a range of memory, IPS and EF tasks compared with the low autistic traits comparison group. Further longitudinal work is needed to examine age-related change in both older autistic and autistic trait populations.