One size does not fit all: An individualized approach to understand heterogeneous cognitive performance in autistic adults.
Multivariate normative comparisons spot the autistic adults whose cognitive profile is rare—and those same people are most likely to feel anxious or depressed.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Torenvliet et al. (2023) ran a full cognitive battery on autistic adults. They used multivariate normative comparisons (MNC). MNC checks if one person’s whole pattern of scores is rare in the general population.
The team wanted to know how many autistic adults have “deviant” cognitive profiles. They also asked whether those deviant profiles link to higher anxiety or depression.
What they found
MNC flagged twice as many autistic adults as “cognitively deviant” compared with non-autistic peers. The deviant group also reported more psychological distress. In short, the outliers are the ones most at risk.
How this fits with other research
Al-Yagon et al. (2022) saw the same spread in social-cognition: almost half of autistic adults scored in the typical range. Both papers kill the myth of a single “autistic cognitive profile.”
Jackson et al. (2025) extend the picture to ageing. They show small but steady memory and attention dips after fifty. Combine the two studies: use MNC early, then re-test at mid-life to catch decline before it bites.
Riches et al. (2016) first mapped cognitive scores in adults seeking diagnosis. Torenvliet et al. (2023) now give us a sharper tool—MNC—to decide whose pattern is truly unusual and who may need extra mental-health support.
Why it matters
You can’t eyeball a cognitive report and guess risk. Run MNC software (free Excel sheets exist) on your next adult assessment. If the client lands in the deviant zone, add mood screens and plan coping skills—not more testing.
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Join Free →Paste your client’s cognitive sub-test scores into an MNC calculator; flag any profile that falls outside the 5% rarity cutoff and schedule a mood check-in if it does.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Cognitive performances of autistic people vary widely. Therefore, previous group-based comparisons on cognitive aging in autistic adults might have overlooked those autistic adults that are particularly vulnerable for cognitive decline. Multivariate normative comparisons (MNC) statistically assess individual cognitive differences on the entire cognitive profile. Cognitive deviancy as indicated by MNC accurately predicts future cognitive decline, and is therefore sensitive in detecting meaningful cognitive differences. The current study aimed to (1) investigate the applicability of MNC to assess cognitive performance in autism individually, and (2) understand heterogeneous cognitive performance in autistic adults. As pre-registered, we performed MNC in a sample of 254 non-autistic adults, and two independent samples of respectively 118, and 86 autistic adults (20-85 years, mean: 50 years). Cognitive performance was measured on 11 outcomes in six domains (verbal/visual memory, working memory, verbal fluency, Theory of Mind, and psychomotor speed). Using MNC, about twice as many autistic individuals had a deviant cognitive profile (i.e., deviated statistically from the multivariate normspace) as compared to non-autistic individuals. Importantly, most autistic individuals (>80%) did not have a deviant cognitive profile. Having a deviant profile was significantly associated with higher levels of psychological distress in autistic adults specifically, showing the clinical relevance of this method. Therefore, MNC seem a useful tool to individually detect meaningful cognitive differences in autism. These results are consistent with previous cognitive studies suggesting that most autistic adults show fairly similar cognitive profiles to non-autistic adults, yet highlight the necessity for approaches reflecting the heterogeneity observed in autistic people.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2023 · doi:10.1002/aur.2878