There are no differences in normal loss of cognitive functions over time in older people who have autistic traits and those who are neurotypical, according to a study published in the journal Gerontologist. This is the first study to assess age-related decline and spatial working memory in older people with autistic traits.
Spatial working memory helps us remember where things are around us and how they are arranged. It’s crucial for navigating spaces or organizing objects. As people age, spatial working memory becomes less effective, which is an example of cognitive decline. This decline is part of normal aging but is more pronounced in conditions like dementia.
Patients with autistic traits may also struggle with spatial working memory, especially when it comes to tasks that involve remembering and organising visual information. However, researchers don’t know whether autism leads to an increased risk of cognitive decline and, by extension, increases the risk of future dementia.
Now, a team led by UCL researchers evaluated data from more than 10,000 people over the age of 50 in the UK who had been diagnosed as having autistic traits, including difficulty with social communication, repetitive behaviours or focused interests.
For the analysis, the team used growth mixture modelling to follow how participants’ spatial working memory changed over seven years. The results showed that most people, whether they had autistic traits or not, maintained their cognitive ability over time. This means that autistic people are not more likely to experience cognitive decline in this domain.
“Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition associated with differences in social communication and repetitive patterns of sensory motor behaviours. It is known that autistic people often also have cognitive differences relative to non-autistic people. In light of this and a current global World Health Organisation-led focus on prevention of cognitive decline and dementia, there has been considerable interest in whether having a neurodevelopmental condition like autism can affect your risk of age-related cognitive decline and potentially dementia,” said Professor Joshua Stott, from UCL Psychology & Language Sciences.
“Our work provides no support for any difference between autistic people and neurotypical people in terms of increased risk of age-related cognitive decline. While there are limitations and more studies are needed, looking directly at other aspects of cognitive decline and dementia risk in the community rather than healthcare records samples, this research provides useful evidence that can hopefully help to reassure autistic people about this concerning issue.”
Some previous research may have suggested a higher rate of dementia in older adults with autism. However, these studies only looked at a very particular and small subsample of autistic people, who probably have other healthcare problems and are at greater risk of dementia than autistic people in general.
“Understanding how ageing intersects with autism is an important yet understudied topic. Getting older often comes with a range of changes, including in health and cognition. As autistic people can be at greater risk of certain health problems and have cognitive differences to non-autistic people, we need to know whether autistic people will have different patterns of ageing than their non-autistic peers,” said Dr Gavin Stewart, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London. “This study provides some reassuring evidence that some aspects of cognition change similarly in autistic and non-autistic populations.”
The team now wants to assess participants for a longer time and include a wider age range to better understand memory changes.
Ghai S, Eshetu A, Corbett A, Ballard C, Aarsland D, Hampshire A, O’Nions E, Mandy W, Stott J, Stewart G, and John A. The Association Between Autism Spectrum Traits and Age-Related Spatial Working Memory Decline: A Large-Scale Longitudinal Study, The Gerontologist, Volume 65, 2025, gnaf096, https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnaf096