A quarterly publication of the Autism Research Institute
Spring 2025 | Number 2, Volume 39
Researchers investigating the risk of dementia for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have reported differing findings, with some studies indicating an increased risk compared to the general population and others indicating a comparable or even reduced risk (see editorial in ARRI 2025, volume 39, No. 1). A new large-scale study from the United Kingdom adds to this body of research, suggesting that people with ASD have no elevated risk of decline in one key form of memory.
Saloni Ghai and colleagues analyzed data on more than 13,000 individuals who were 50 years of age or older. The researchers divided participants into three groups—those with high ASD traits or an actual ASD diagnosis, those with intermediate ASD traits, and those with no ASD traits—to see how their spatial working memory changed over a seven-year period. Spatial working memory is the ability to remember and use information about where an object is located or an event occurred, and declines in this skill are often associated with dementia.
The researchers found no significant differences in spatial working memory among the three groups at the beginning of the study, and the groups experienced similar trajectories in spatial working memory skills over time. Study coauthor Joshua Stott comments, “Our work provides no support for any difference between autistic people and neurotypical people in terms of increased risk of age-related cognitive decline.”
The researchers caution, however, that their study had limitations. For example, participants needed to be able to use a computer and access the Internet and were not ethnically diverse, and the test used to identify autistic traits focused on social and communication issues rather than including other autism-related traits. However, see nior study author Gavin Stewart comments, “This study provides some reassuring evidence that some aspects of cognition changesimilarly in autistic and non-autistic populations.”
“The association between autism spectrum traits and age-related spatial working memory decline: a large-scale longitudinal study,” Saloni Ghai, Aphrodite Eshetu, Anne Corbett, Clive Ballard, Dag Aarsland, Adam Hampshire, Elizabeth O’Nions, William Mandy, Joshua Stott, Gavin R. Stewart, and Amber John, The Gerontologist, May 2025 (free online). Address: Joshua Stott, Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HB, [email protected].
—and—
“Autism not linked with increased age-related cognitive decline, finds study,” news release, University College London, April 24, 2025.
