Developmental changes of visuospatial working memory in autistic children and adolescents.

This study followed autistic children and teens for several years to see how their visual and spatial memory skills develop. The researchers found that autistic children had more difficulty with tasks involving remembering visual patterns and spatial information compared to their peers. While both groups improved over time, autistic children didn't improve as much. These differences in visual-spatial memory skills remained even when accounting for other factors like ADHD and IQ levels.

This longitudinal study examined visuospatial working memory development in 123 autistic children/adolescents and 145 typically developing controls over 2-9 years using standardized neuropsychological testing. Autistic participants consistently showed poorer performance on spatial tasks and some visual tasks at both time points, even after controlling for sex, age, ADHD, and IQ. While both groups improved over time, autistic participants demonstrated weaker age-related improvements in visuospatial working memory, particularly in delayed matching, pattern recognition, spatial span, and spatial working memory tasks. The findings reveal persistent deficits in spatial working memory among autistic individuals that continue into adolescence and early adulthood despite developmental improvements.

Visuospatial working memory should be routinely assessed in autistic individuals. Interventions targeting these specific cognitive domains may be beneficial. Educational and therapeutic planning should account for persistent deficits and potentially different developmental trajectories in spatial and visual memory skills.

The study does not specify exclusion criteria, medication effects, or autism severity measures. The wide age range and follow-up period (2-9 years) may introduce variability. Sample characteristics beyond basic demographics are not fully described, limiting generalizability.

Limited longitudinal research examining developmental changes in visuospatial working memory (WM) among children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has prompted our investigation. We assessed 123 autistic children and adolescents and 145 typically developing controls (TDC) using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery at baseline (Time 1 [mean age ± SD]: ASD: 13.04 ± 2.86; TDC: 11.53 ± 2.81) and 2-9 years later (Time 2: ASD: 18.08 ± 3.17; TDC: 16.41 ± 3.09) to measure changes of visuospatial (working) memory over time. The linear mixed model was used to compare the differences between ASD and TDC and estimate the effect of changes over time, age, ASD diagnosis, and interactions of Time×Age×ASD. The overall Age×ASD effect was calculated in the spline regression.

Autistic children and adolescents exhibited significantly poorer performance on all spatial tasks and some visual tasks than their TDC counterparts at Time 1 and Time 2, after adjusting for sex, age, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and full-scale intelligence quotient. There was an overall improvement from Time 1 to Time 2 across all tasks with significant Age×Time interactions. Significant Age×ASD interactions were observed in the delayed matching to sample, pattern recognition memory (PRM), spatial span (SSP), and spatial working memory (SWM) tasks with no significant Time×ASD interactions. In the quadratic nonlinear model, Age×ASD interactions were significant in PRM and SSP.

Despite significant improvements during the follow-up period, autistic children and adolescents continue to experience persistent deficits in SWM, with a weaker age-related improvement in visuospatial WM than TDC.