Adults with autism spectrum disorders and ADHD neuropsychological aspects
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to assess which types of neuropsychological deficits appear to be most commonly associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults. The effect of the combination of ASD with ADHD (ASD/ADHD) was also studied. One hundred and sixty-one adult individuals (≥18 years of age) were included in the study. None had full scale IQ less than 71. The neuropsychological investigations included measures of intellectual ability, learning and memory, attention/executive function and theory of mind. The three diagnostic groups showed reduced performance in most cognitive domains. However, within these domains differentiating distinct features could be seen. The dysfunctions of the ASD/ADHD group cannot be seen as a summary of the dysfunctions found in the ASD and ADHD groups. The ADHD seemed to have the most severe neuropsychological impairments of the three groups. No domain-specific deficit typical of any of the diagnostic groups was found.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Adults with both autism and ADHD did not differ from autism or ADHD-only groups on neurocognitive measures.
“Adults with both conditions did not differ from autism or ADHD-only groups on neurocognitive measures (Nydén et al., 2010).”
From Diagnosis of autism in adulthood: A scoping review (2020) · cites this paper as Nydén et al., 2010
Combined autism/ADHD adults scored differently from autism-only group on some tasks.
“Combined autism/ADHD adults scored differently from autism-only group on some tasks.”
From Diagnosis of autism in adulthood: A scoping review (2020) · cites this paper as Nydén et al. (2010)
All groups scored lower than population mean in some WAIS-R subscales, learning and memory, attention and executive function tasks.
“All scored lower than population mean in some WAIS-R subscales, learning and memory, attention and executive function tasks.”
From Diagnosis of autism in adulthood: A scoping review (2020) · cites this paper as Nydén et al. (2010)
Combined autism/ADHD group scored lower than population mean in full-scale IQ.
“Combined autism/ADHD group scored lower than population mean in full-scale IQ.”
From Diagnosis of autism in adulthood: A scoping review (2020) · cites this paper as Nydén et al. (2010)
The strong link between ADHD symptoms and working memory deficits agrees with earlier studies and suggests that working memory may clarify causal pathways for ADHD.
“In any case, the strong relation between ADHD symptoms and working memory deficits concurs with previous studies 24,25 and suggests that working memory performance may shed more light on the causal pathways for ADHD.”
Co-occurrence of ADHD and ASD has been reported in a clinical sample of adults who also had high rates of other psychiatric comorbidity.
“At the same time, cooccurrence has also been reported in a clinical sample of adults who experienced ADHD and ASD along with high rates of other psychiatric comorbidity [83,84].”
From Treatment for Co-Occurring Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder (2012) · cites this paper as [83]
In adults with ADHD, ASD, and co-occurring ADHD/ASD, a recent study found overall impairment in executive functioning but no evidence that co-occurring ADHD and ASD was associated with greater deficits.
“In contrast to these findings among children, results from a recent study of adults with ADHD, ASD, and co-occurring ADHD/ASD found overall impairment in executive functioning in these groups, but there was no evidence that co-occurring ADHD and ASD was associated with greater deficits [83].”
From Treatment for Co-Occurring Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder (2012) · cites this paper as [83]
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 59 · Cited by 112
- Authors
- Nydén, A., Niklasson, L., Stahlberg, O., Anckarsater, H., Wentz, E., Rastam, M., & Gillberg, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
- Swedish Institute for Health Sciences (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Nydén, Agneta
- Venue
- Research in Developmental Disabilities
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-11
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1659-1668
- ISSN
- 0891-4222 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2068180727
- Cited by
- 112
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 7.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Research in Developmental Disabilities (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, adults, neuropsychological deficits, comorbidities, executive function, attention, learning and memory, theory of mind, intellectual ability
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Autistic Disorder, Female, Humans, Intelligence Tests, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Neuropsychological Tests, Severity of Illness Index, Verbal Learning, Asperger Syndrome, Young Adult, Theory of Mind, Memory, Long-Term
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
