Executive Functions in Older Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Objective Performance and Subjective Complaints

Davids, Roeliena C. D.; Groen, Yvonne; Berg, Ina; Tucha, Oliver; Balkom, Ingrid D. C. van

doi:10.1007/s10803-016-2831-4

Cited by 56 publications

(95 citation statements)

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“…Prior studies have noted that the emergence of anticorrelations between the CEN and the DMN in typical development occurs during a similar developmental window as normative improvements in executive function [e.g., Luna, Garver, Urban, Lazar, & Sweeney, ; Chai et al, ], and stronger anticorrelations between the CEN and DMN are associated with better performance on lab‐based measures of executive function and IQ in neurotypical individuals [Kelly, Uddin, Biswal, Castellanos, & Milham, ; Hampson, Driesen, Roth, Gore, & Constable, ; Sherman et al, ]. Our findings thus suggest the possibility that atypical developmental trajectories between the CEN and DMN in ASD, which prevent them from attaining typical mature patterns of functional connectivity, may be related to the persistent executive function deficits observed in ASD [e.g., Chen et al, ; Davids, Groen, Berg, Tucha, & van Balkom, ; Wang et al, ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atypical longitudinal development of functional connectivity in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

et al. 2018

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is consistently associated with alterations in brain connectivity, but there are conflicting results as to where and when individuals with ASD display increased or reduced functional connectivity. Such inconsistent findings may be driven by atypical neurodevelopmental trajectories in ASD during adolescence, but no longitudinal studies to date have investigated this hypothesis. We thus examined the functional connectivity of three neurocognitive resting-state networks – the default mode network (DMN), salience network, and central executive network (CEN) – in a longitudinal sample of youth with ASD (n=16) and without ASD (n=22) studied during early/mid- and late adolescence. Functional connectivity between the CEN and the DMN displayed significantly altered developmental trajectories in ASD: typically developing (TD) controls – but not youth with ASD – exhibited an increase in negative functional connectivity between these two networks with age. This significant interaction was due to the ASD group displaying less negative functional connectivity than the TD group during late adolescence only, with no significant group differences in early/mid-adolescence. These preliminary findings suggest a localized age-dependency of functional connectivity alterations in ASD and underscore the importance of considering age when examining brain connectivity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atypical longitudinal development of functional connectivity in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

et al. 2018

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“…Moreover, the ASC participants did report much more cognitive difficulties on a subjective measure as compared to those without ASC (same participants, different paper: van Heijst and Geurts 2015). In a similar study (Davids et al 2016; N ASC = 36, N non-ASC = 36, age 50-84 years), focusing on some of the same cognitive domains, no large differences in performance between the ASC and non-ASC group were observed in neither general processing speed nor planning (although the ASC group was slower) and generativity. Interestingly, ASC participants did report many EF problems in daily life.…”

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confidence: 83%

“…When including again primarily adults with a late adulthood ASC diagnosis, but now focussing on a much wider age range (N ASC = 118 to, N non-ASC = 118-167 to; 19-79 years; see for detailed findings Lever and Geurts 2016a 2 ; Lever et al 2015Lever et al , 2017 both the larger amount of self-reported cognitive difficulties (similar to Davids et al 2016;van Heijst and Geurts 2015) and EF group differences in generativity (similar to Geurts and Vissers 2012) were replicated. However, no differences emerged between those older adults with and without ASC when using a different WM task (Lever et al 2015, see also Braden et al 2017.…”

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confidence: 84%

“…To our knowledge only seven papers reported on objective clinical EF measures of a (clinically) diagnosed ASC adult sample of which approximately 50% of the participants was over 45 years of age (Braden et al 2017;Davids et al 2016;Geurts and Vissers 2012;Lever and Geurts 2016a;Powell et al 2017;Tse et al 2019;Walsh et al 2019). The findings, however, are inconsistent.…”

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confidence: 98%

“…There were, however, also some differences in the cognitive measures used which might account for the discrepancy in findings. In two other small studies [Braden et al 2017; N ASC = 14 to 16, N non-ASC = 17, age 40-64 years; Walsh et al 2019; N ASC = 24 to 25, N non-ASC = 15 to 21, age 18 to 70 years (note, they included specific subgroups aged 40-70 with mean age over 45 years)] with slightly younger participants, EF differences emerged on a cognitive flexibility task similar to the one used in Geurts and Vissers (2012) study, 1 but not on a planning task which was similar to the one used in the Davids et al (2016) study. So even when similar tasks were used, the findings in across the different small studies are still inconsistent.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Executive Functioning in 60+ Autistic Males: The Discrepancy Between Experienced Challenges and Cognitive Performance

Geurts

Pol

Lobbestael

et al. 2020

J Autism Dev Disord

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As executive functioning (EF) is especially sensitive to age-related cognitive decline, EF was evaluated by using a multimethod assessment. Fifty males (60-85 years) with a late adulthood autism spectrum condition (ASC) diagnosis and 51 non-ASC males (60-83 years) were compared on cognitive tests across EF domains (cognitive flexibility, planning, processing speed, and working memory) and a self-and proxy report of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version. While no objective performance differences emerged, autistic males and their proxies did report more EF challenges than non-ASC males on the subjective measure. In order to know how to support the older autistic men who received their ASC diagnosis in late adulthood with their daily life EF challenges, it is important to understand what underlies these subjective EF problems.

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Patterns of Nonsocial and Social Cognitive Functioning in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

2019

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IMPORTANCE Many studies have investigated impairments in cognitive domains in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet, to date, a comprehensive overview on the patterns of cognitive functioning is lacking.OBJECTIVE To provide an overview of nonsocial and social cognitive functioning in various domains in adults with ASD, allowing for comparison of the severity of deficits between different domains. DATA SOURCES A literature search performed in an academic medical setting was conducted using PubMed, PsycINFO, Embase, and Medline databases with the combination of the following free-text and Medical Subject Headings where applicable: [cogniti* OR neurocogniti* OR neuropsycholog* OR executive function* OR IQ OR intelligence quotient OR social cognition OR emotion perception OR affect perception OR emotion recognition OR attribution OR ToM OR mentalising OR mentalizing OR prosody OR social knowledge OR mind reading OR social cue OR social judgment] AND [autis* OR ASD OR Asperger OR Asperger's OR PDD OR pervasive developmental disorder]. The search was further limited to studies published between 1980 (first inclusion of autism diagnosis in the DSM-III) and July 2018.STUDY SELECTION Studies included were published as a primary peer-reviewed research article in English, included individuals with ASD 16 years or older, and assessed at least 1 domain of neurocognitive functioning or social cognition using standard measures.DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS Of 9892 articles identified and screened, 75 met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review and meta-analysis.MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Hedges g effect sizes were computed, and random-effects models were used for all analyses. Moderators of between-study variability in effect sizes were assessed using meta-regressions. RESULTSThe systematic review and meta-analysis included 75 studies, with a combined sample of 3361 individuals with ASD (mean [SD] age, 32.0 [9.3] years; 75.9% male) and 5344 neurotypical adults (mean [SD] age, 32.3 [9.1] years; 70.1% male). Adults with ASD showed large impairments in theory of mind (g = −1.09; 95% CI, −1.25 to −0.92; number of studies = 39) and emotion perception and processing (g = −0.80; 95% CI, −1.04 to −0.55; n = 18), followed by medium impairments in processing speed (g = −0.61; 95% CI, −0.83 to −0.38; n = 21) and verbal learning and memory (g = −0.55; 95% CI, −0.86 to −0.25; n = 12). The least altered cognitive domains were attention and vigilance (g = −0.30; 95% CI, −0.81 to 0.21; n = 5) and working memory (g = −0.23; 95% CI, −0.47 to 0.01; n = 19). Meta-regressions confirmed robustness of the results. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEResults of this systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that adults with ASD show impairments in social cognitive domains and in specific nonsocial cognitive domains. These findings contribute to the understanding of the patterns of cognitive functioning in adults with ASD and may assist in the identification of targets for cognitive interventions.

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Executive Functions in Older Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Objective Performance and Subjective Complaints

Cited by 56 publications

References 83 publications

Atypical longitudinal development of functional connectivity in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

Atypical longitudinal development of functional connectivity in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

Executive Functioning in 60+ Autistic Males: The Discrepancy Between Experienced Challenges and Cognitive Performance

Patterns of Nonsocial and Social Cognitive Functioning in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

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