Adults with autism spectrum disorders and ADHD neuropsychological aspects.
Adults with ASD and/or ADHD show broad cognitive soft spots, not neat diagnostic fingerprints, so assess across domains.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Nydén et al. (2010) compared three groups of adults: ASD only, ADHD only, and both together.
They ran a full neuropsych battery to see if each label had its own clear brain profile.
What they found
All groups showed weak scores across memory, attention, and planning tasks.
The ADHD group looked the most impaired overall, but no single test result could tell the labels apart.
How this fits with other research
Bramham et al. (2009) reported clear-cut differences one year earlier: ADHD adults struggled only with stopping quick responses, while ASD adults had wider planning problems.
Sofronoff et al. (2011) later echoed that split, showing ASD adults were slow but accurate on stop tasks.
Kanai et al. (2017) then found unique WAIS-III patterns: ASD scored higher on verbal subtests, ADHD on visual ones.
The 2010 paper sits in the middle: it says the lines blur when you zoom out, while the others say they sharpen when you zoom in on one skill.
Why it matters
For you, this means test wide and test deep. Use a full battery instead of leaning on one executive-function task. If scores look messy, that is normal; plan supports for diffuse weakness rather than a single signature deficit.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The purpose of the present study was to assess which types of neuropsychological deficits appear to be most commonly associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults. The effect of the combination of ASD with ADHD (ASD/ADHD) was also studied. One hundred and sixty-one adult individuals (≥18 years of age) were included in the study. None had full scale IQ less than 71. The neuropsychological investigations included measures of intellectual ability, learning and memory, attention/executive function and theory of mind. The three diagnostic groups showed reduced performance in most cognitive domains. However, within these domains differentiating distinct features could be seen. The dysfunctions of the ASD/ADHD group cannot be seen as a summary of the dysfunctions found in the ASD and ADHD groups. The ADHD seemed to have the most severe neuropsychological impairments of the three groups. No domain-specific deficit typical of any of the diagnostic groups was found.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2010 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2010.04.010