Processing Speed is Impaired in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Relates to Social Communication Abilities.
Sarah M Haigh, Jennifer A Walsh, Carla A Mazefsky and 2 others
PMID 29500756WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with autism and no intellectual disability completed symbol coding, number connecting, and animal naming more slowly than controls matched for intelligence.
Slower processing speed was linked to worse communication and reciprocal social interaction, not broader social adjustment.
Key findings
01Adults with ASD had significantly lower composite processing speed scores than controls after controlling for age, race, and education.
02Within the ASD group, slower processing speed was associated with worse ADOS communication and reciprocal social interaction scores, and the association remained after controlling for IQ, age, and sex.
03Processing speed was not significantly related to social adjustment on the SAS-II.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The ASD and control groups differed in age, race, and education; the authors controlled for these, but matching was not perfect. Healthy controls did not receive autism diagnostic assessments, so some may have had subclinical autism symptoms. Processing speed was not significantly related to the SAS-II social adjustment measure, so a link to broader social disability was not shown. The processing speed tests require motor output, so slower scores could partly reflect motor slowness rather than purely perceptual or cognitive speed. Only baseline data from participants recruited for Cognitive Enhancement Therapy studies were used, and some participants did not have SAS-II or GAF data. The sample was mainly young adult Caucasian males with ASD and IQ of at least 80, so findings may not apply to women, children, or people with intellectual disability.
Declared interests
The authors reported no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the processing speed deficit as proof that it causes social communication problems or that treating it will improve social functioning. The study compared groups at baseline and did not test treatment; slower speed was not significantly related to social adjustment on the SAS-II.