The intellectual profiles of high functioning elderly persons with an autism spectrum disorder

Research into the cognitive profiles of older adults with ASD is limited.We know little about how aging affects individuals with ASD and how this influences their needs.The present study is the first to examine intelligence profiles in older adults with ASD.WAIS-III performance of 23 elderly with ASD and 23 neurotypical older persons was examined.The two groups were matched on age and level of education.Results showed highly similar intelligence profiles, with the exception of processing speed index, on which the older adults with ASD performed weaker than the neurotypical control group.This was caused by impairment on the subscale Digit symbol-coding, which was hypothesized to be due to a local information processing style and problems in set shifting.