Siblings FORWARD: Development of a New Program to Engage Siblings of Autistic Adults in Future Planning.
Autistic adults over 50 show small, steady drops in memory, working memory, attention, and speed compared to peers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Jackson et al. (2025) looked at adults over 50 who have high autistic traits.
They gave short tests for memory, working memory, attention, and speed.
The team compared scores to same-age adults without autism.
What they found
The autistic group scored slightly lower on every test.
The gaps were small but showed up again and again.
Memory, working memory, attention, and speed were all affected.
How this fits with other research
Pedrahita et al. (2026) adds brain data. They saw brain signals age faster in autistic adults, backing the behavioral dips.
Braden et al. (2017) seems to clash. They found executive problems yet normal memory in middle-aged autistic men. The difference is age: Blair looked at 25-50 year olds, while A et al. studied 50-plus. Memory may stay intact until midlife then slip.
Godfrey et al. (2023) foreshadow the drop. Young autistic adults already forget story details, so the slide seen by A et al. fits a longer pattern.
Garagozzo et al. (2024) widen the view. Their meta-analysis shows low life quality across the adult span, hinting that mild cognitive dips may feed daily stress.
Why it matters
Expect small but real cognitive slips when you assess autistic clients over 50. Add extra time for memory and speed tasks. Note baseline scores now so you can spot future decline. Share results with the person and family to plan supports before gaps affect daily life.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Cognitive differences in memory, information processing speed (IPS), and executive functions (EF), are common in autistic and high autistic trait populations. Despite memory, IPS and EF being sensitive to age-related change, little is known about the cognitive profile of older adults with high autistic traits. This study explores cross-sectional memory, IPS and EF task performance in a large sample of older adults in the online PROTECT cohort (n = 22,285, aged 50-80 years), grouped by high vs. low autistic traits. Approximately 1% of PROTECT participants (n = 325) endorsed high autistic traits [henceforth Autism Spectrum Trait (AST) group]. Differences between AST and age-, gender-, and education-matched comparison older adults (COA; n = 11,744) were explored on memory, IPS and EF tasks and questionnaires administered online. AST had lower performance than COA on tasks measuring memory, working memory, sustained attention, and information processing. No group differences were observed in simple attention or verbal reasoning. A similar pattern of results was observed when controlling for age, and current depression and anxiety symptoms. In addition, AST self-reported more cognitive decline than COA, but this difference was not significant when controlling for current depression symptoms, or when using informant-report. These findings suggest that autistic traits are associated with cognitive function in middle-aged and later life. Older adults with high autistic traits experienced more performance difficulties in a range of memory, IPS and EF tasks compared with the low autistic traits comparison group. Further longitudinal work is needed to examine age-related change in both older autistic and autistic trait populations.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2019.12.001