A Longitudinal Study on Cognitive Aging in Autism

Torenvliet, Carolien; Groenman, Annabeth P.; Radhoe, Tulsi; Rentergem, Joost A. Agelink van; Putten, Wikke J. van der; Geurts, Hilde M.

doi:10.31234/osf.io/epnvs

Cited by 2 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…At least in a recognition format, autism, and older age result in less differences in cognitive strategy use than previously expected. Furthermore, consistent with our earlier work (Torenvliet et al, 2021(Torenvliet et al, , 2023 we demonstrated parallel age-related effects between those with-and without autism, reducing the likelihood of both accelerated, and protective age-related patterns in autism.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Age-related differences in autistic and non-autistic people were similar, with significantly slower, and less accurate responses in older, compared to younger individuals. This is consistent with our previous observations of parallel cross-sectional and longitudinal age-related effects in autism (Torenvliet et al, 2021(Torenvliet et al, , 2023. Hence, based on these results visual memory performance and objective strategy use seems similar in autistic-and nonautistic adults, with parallel age-related patterns.…”

Section: Equal Memory Performance and Strategy Use In Autismsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…As differences in cognitive functioning are observed in autistic young people (Frith, 2012), and autistic adults consistently rate their own cognitive functioning as worse than their non-autistic peers (for an overview see Groenman et al, 2022), studies capturing how cognitive functioning evolves in older autistic people are essential ("the aging analogy", Bowler, 2007). Various patterns of cognitive aging in autism have been hypothesized (also see Geurts & Vissers, 2012), yet no consensus has been reached on whether autistic aging is most likely to be accelerated (faster), parallel (at equal pace) or even protective (slower) compared to non-autistic aging (Pagni et al, 2022;Torenvliet et al, 2023).…”

Section: Cognitive Strategies In Older and Autistic Adultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, compared to the study our older groups were relatively young (72 years vs. 81 years). Yet, it is uncertain whether in an offline setting the older autism group could have been much older, as it is hard to recruit older autistic participants (Torenvliet et al, 2023).…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Memory Strategies in Older and Autistic Adults

Torenvliet¹,

Groenman²,

Burg³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Cognitive strategy use in autism seems to mimic patterns of strategy use at older age as both younger autistic, and older non-autistic individuals seem to make less use of semantic affordance when performing visual memory tasks. Hypothetically, initial difficulties in semantic strategy use in autism become beneficial at older age (i.e., “protective aging”), due to enhanced visual processing. The current study aimed to investigate 1) whether differences in strategy use at younger age translate to differences in strategy use at older age, and 2) possible protective age-related differences in autism. Participants (ntotal=147) in four groups (autistic younger/older, non-autistic younger/older) completed a recognition version of the Visual Patterns Test (VPT) assessing semantic strategy use during visual memory performance, the Just Noticeable Difference (JND) size task assessing visual processing, and Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire (MMQ) on subjective memory performance. Unexpectedly, on the VPT all groups - except the younger non-autistic group – benefited from high semantic affordance, although the older groups (autistic/non-autistic) performed less accurately and slower. On the JND size task, the autistic groups did not show enhanced visual processing. Subjectively, autistic adults rated their memory performance worse than non-autistic adults, despite higher reported rates of strategy use. These results might shift our perspectives on cognitive strategy use in older and autistic adults, showing that, in a recognition paradigm, (semantic) strategy use might be more similar between younger/older and autistic/non-autistic people than previously expected. Although no protective age-related effects were observed, these results substantiate previous research suggesting parallel cognitive aging in autism.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Equal Memory Performance and Strategy Use In Autismsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Cognitive Strategies In Older and Autistic Adultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Memory Strategies in Older and Autistic Adults

Torenvliet¹,

Groenman²,

Burg³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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show abstract

“…In the past decade, the literature on cognitive aging in autistic people has developed rapidly. Most crosssectional studies seem to observe similar age-related effects (i.e., parallel aging) between autistic-and nonautistic adults (Lever & Geurts, 2016;Torenvliet et al, 2021;Tse et al, 2019), yet others have observed evidence for increased age-related effects (i.e., accelerated aging) at least in some domains (Abbott et al, 2018;Baxter et al, 2019;Geurts & Vissers, 2012;Powell et al, 2017). Moreover, advantageous age-related effects have also been observed in which older autistic individuals seemed less prone to age-related effects (i.e., protective aging; Lever et al, 2015;Zivrali Yarar et al, 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

One size does not fit all: An individualized approach to understand heterogeneous cognitive performance in autistic adults

et al. 2022

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registration. CT, and TAR were responsible for data collection. CT performed the analyses, with help from JAAR. CT wrote the first draft with input from all authors. CT, APG, and HMG were involved in feedback on subsequent versions. All authors provided feedback on the final version and approved the manuscript.Acknowledgements: We would like to thank all our participants for the effort and time they have put into this study, and the clinical institutions and organizations who actively helped recruiting our participants. Furthermore, we would like to thank the students and research assistants involved in the project for their help with the recruitment of participants and data collection.Lastly, we would like to thank our think tank of autistic/older adults for their instrumental contributions to this work.

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A Longitudinal Study on Cognitive Aging in Autism

Cited by 2 publications

References 33 publications

Memory Strategies in Older and Autistic Adults

Memory Strategies in Older and Autistic Adults

One size does not fit all: An individualized approach to understand heterogeneous cognitive performance in autistic adults

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