Do cognitive deficits persist into adolescence in autism?

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Autism Res. 2018 Sep 28. doi: 10.1002/aur.1976. [Epub ahead of print]
Do cognitive deficits persist into adolescence in autism?
Cantio C1,2, White S3, Madsen GF1, Bilenberg N1,4, Jepsen JRM5,6.
Author information
Abstract

SEVERAL THEORIES HAVE ATTEMPTED TO CHARACTERISE AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS (ASDS) AT THE COGNITIVE LEVEL, MOST NOTABLY: THEORY OF MIND (TOM), EXECUTIVE FUNCTION (EF), AND A LOCAL PROCESSING BIAS (LB). THE AIM OF THIS STUDY WAS TO INVESTIGATE HOW THESE COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS DEVELOP OVER TIME: The three cognitive domains (ToM, EF, and LB) were examined in a group of high-functioning children (age: 8-12, mean 10.85; IQ: 78-139, mean 105.48) with ASD and a matched group of children with neurotypical development (NTD) (IQ: 75-145, mean: 109.47), and several tasks were used within each domain to ensure the validity of the cognitive measures. Approximately 3 years later (mean age: 14.34), all children and their families were invited to participate in the follow-up (ASD, N = 21; NTD, N = 30). While the understanding of other's minds does improve from childhood to adolescence, ToM impairment persists in adolescents with ASD relative to their peers. Likewise, a development in EF was observed in the ASD group, while no significant improvement was seen in the NTD group, leading the ASD group to catch up in this domain. We did not detect any group differences at any time point regarding local bias processing (LB). Individual patterns of development were seen, but remarkably, ToM deficits were present in every child with ASD in whom we could detect any cognitive impairment at baseline, and a similar pattern was found at follow-up. These findings indicate that ToM is a persistent cognitive deficit in ASD.
LAY SUMMARY:

This was the first study to investigate the development of three well-known cognitive functions into adolescence: While the understanding of other's minds improves from childhood to adolescence, adolescents with ASD are still impaired relative to their peers. The EFs, however, seem to improve to a neurotypical level in ASD as children enter adolescence, while local processing bias seems to differentiate the groups only in early childhood.



https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30265774

So for how many of you did your EF improve as you got older?

If it's my transition from child to adolescence, awareness made me worse. To the point of burnout.

But I recovered sometime at age 16+. I even got better.
Yet I'm already 23, yet I'm still trying to catch up.

I already have the opportunities and changes, then different angles and different terms for me to learn and look at to improve but...


Most of my EF deficits came from bad sleep quality -- the closest thing I have for a comorbid. YEARS of it.
Exhaustion and/or overwhelm is not my problem. Something in my head just refuses to wake itself up.
And when it does, everything becomes too easy.
I suddenly became very competent at waking up during those random weird mornings -- it lasts for days, sometimes weeks.
Only for it to stop after a week or so, just because that one beneficial sleep at night that week no longer takes effect.


The only 'natural' EF 'deficit' or 'delay' I have would be anything to do with involving verbal reasoning, and it doesn't get better if not getting worse over time -- not even with consistent practice.

Then there are more complex case, like, say, the domain of planning:
I can do multi step tasks, learn and perform complex physical movements. I remain good at the latter, no matter which stage of life I've been.
But planning things ahead (other than planning motor movement) or/and organize things is another matter.
I'm not sure if this is something to do with my preference, a downside of not suffering from anxiety, or something needing to be fixed.

The rest is supposed to be improved if it weren't for the need and the act of sleep. More reason why I hate sleep.



Overall, I'm still not sure how executive dysfunction persists or improve overtime in autism in general.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
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Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

My cognitive development was quite good, but my social development was always stilted, until now. Still, there are social conversations I may never be a part of.