A recent study suggests that older autistic adults may retain strong visual abilities and not experience typical age-related decline in brain regions related to vision.
The study, which used fMRI to scan the brains of 31 autistic men, 13 autistic women, 30 typical men, and 15 typical women aged between 30 to 74 years, examined neuronal connections in three brain networks: default mode, frontoparietal control, and visual network.
The findings showed that while neuronal connections decline in strength as a person ages, older autistic individuals have stronger connections in the visual network compared to their typical peers. This suggests that autistic individuals may have superior visual abilities and demonstrate stronger visual skills than neurotypical peers, showing no decline in cognitive tasks with age.
However, it is important to note that the study had a relatively small number of participants and was unable to track changes over time, highlighting the need for follow-up studies to fully understand how the brains of autistic individuals change as they age. Researchers, including Geurts and colleagues, are currently studying cognitive and mental health changes in autistic adults as they age.
The original article can be found here.
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