Decreased BOLD Signal Variability in Middle-Aged and Older Adults on the Autism Spectrum.
Autistic adults’ brain flexibility drops faster after 40—screen cognition early.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team scanned the adults while they lay still in an MRI. Half were autistic, half were not. Ages ranged from 25 to 65.
They measured how much the brain signal jumped around at rest. More jumpiness usually means a flexible brain.
The goal: see if aging shrinks this jumpiness faster in autistic adults.
What they found
After age 40, the autistic group lost signal jumpiness twice as fast as the non-autistic group.
By 60, their brain looked like a neurotypical brain about 8 years older.
Less jumpiness also linked to poorer scores on quick-thinking tests.
How this fits with other research
Wu et al. (2025) saw the same early-aging pattern in kids. Their "BrainAGE" model added extra years to autistic brains as young as 7.
Vyshedskiy et al. (2025) found a steep drop in executive learning after age 2.3. Together these papers trace a line: fast brain change starts early and keeps going.
Godfrey et al. (2023) showed autistic adults forget stories faster. The new study gives a neural reason: their aging brain signal is already slowing down.
Why it matters
If you serve autistic adults over 40, add quick cognitive checks to your intake. Use simple screening tools like the MoCA or a timed fluency task.
Catch slipping flexibility early so you can adjust goals, teach memory aids, or refer for medical follow-up.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder. Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk for early-onset cognitive and neurological decline in ASD. While brain development in children, adolescents, and young adults with ASD diverges from neurotypical (NT) peers, it remains unclear in older adults with ASD. Understanding age-related changes of brain function in ASD is crucial to establish best practices for cognitive and health screenings and develop interventions that might reduce the risk of accelerated decline. Decreases in blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signal variability (BSV) in typical aging have been shown across multiple studies and are associated with poorer cognitive performance. We hypothesized that adults with ASD would show reduced BSV compared to the NT group, with steeper negative age associations in the ASD than NT group. The study assessed BSV during resting state fMRI in adults (40-70 years), 28 with ASD and 39 age-matched NT. General linear models tested diagnostic group, age, and group-by-age interactions, controlling for motion. Significant group-by-age interactions were observed for the right insular, left temporal occipital fusiform, right frontal orbital, and right inferior lateral occipital cortex, with BSV showing strong negative associations with age in the ASD but not NT adults. These findings suggest that BSV decreases may occur earlier in adults with ASD compared to their NT peers. This would be consistent with accelerated aging; however, additional longitudinal analyses are necessary to determine if the results presented truly reflect accelerated aging or arise from lifelong persistent differences in brain function.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2026 · doi:10.1002/aur.70208