Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia are neurodevelopmental disorders which share substantial overlap in cognitive deficits during adulthood. However, treatment evaluation in ASD and treatment comparisons across ASD and schizophrenia are limited by a dearth of empirical work establishing the validity of a standard cognitive battery across ASD and schizophrenia. Promisingly, the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) has been validated in schizophrenia and encompasses cognitive domains that are impacted in ASD. Thus, this study aimed to establish MCCB's generalizability from schizophrenia to ASD.

Community-residing adults with schizophrenia (N = 100) and ASD (N = 113) underwent MCCB assessment. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, MCCB's transdiagnostic validity was evaluated by examining whether schizophrenia and ASD demonstrate the same configuration, magnitude, and directionality of relationships within and among measures and their underlying cognitive domains.

Across schizophrenia and ASD, the same subsets of MCCB measures inform three cognitive domains: processing speed, attention/working memory, and learning. Except for group means in category fluency, continuous performance, and spatial span, both groups show vastly comparable factor structures and characteristics.

To our knowledge, this study is the first to establish the validity of a standard cognitive battery in adults with ASD and furthermore the first to establish a cognitive battery's comparability across ASD and schizophrenia. Cognitive domain scores can be compared across new samples using weighted sums of MCCB scores resulting from this study. These findings highlight MCCB's applicability to ASD and support its utility for standardizing treatment evaluation of cognitive outcomes across the autism-schizophrenia spectrum.

Patients with the deficit form of schizophrenia (D-SZ) are characterized by severe primary negative symptoms and differ from patients with the non-deficit form of schizophrenia (ND-SZ) in several aspects. No study has measured brain gyrification, which is a potential marker of neurodevelopment, in D-SZ and ND-SZ.

We obtained magnetic resonance scans from 135 schizophrenia patients and 50 healthy controls. The proxy scale for deficit syndrome (PDS) was used for the classification of D-SZ and ND-SZ. The local gyrification index (LGI) of the entire cortex was measured using FreeSurfer. Thirty-seven D-SZ and 36 ND-SZ patients were included in the LGI analyses. We compared LGI across the groups.

SZ patients exhibited hyper-gyral patterns in the bilateral dorsal medial prefrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortices, bilateral anterior cingulate gyri and right lateral parietal/occipital cortices as compared with HCs. Although patients with D-SZ or ND-SZ had higher LGI in similar regions compared with HC, the hyper-gyral patterns were broader in ND-SZ. ND-SZ patients exhibited a significantly higher LGI in the left inferior parietal lobule relative to D-SZ patients. Duration of illness inversely associated with LGI in broad regions only among ND-SZ patients.

The common hyper-gyral patterns among D-SZ and ND-SZ suggest that D-SZ and ND-SZ may share neurodevelopmental abnormalities. The different degrees of cortical gyrification seen in the left parietal regions, and the distinct correlation between illness chronicity and LGI observed in the prefrontal and insular cortices may be related to the differences in the clinical manifestations among D-SZ and ND-SZ.

Schizophrenia has a neurodevelopmental component to its origin, and may share overlapping pathogenic mechanisms with childhood neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs). Nevertheless, longitudinal studies of psychotic outcomes among individuals with NDs are limited. We report a population-based prospective study of six common childhood NDs, subsequent neurocognitive performance and the risk of psychotic experiences (PEs) in early adolescence.

PEs were assessed by semi-structured interviews at age 13 years. IQ and working memory were measured between ages 9 and 11 years. The presence of six NDs (autism spectrum, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, dysorthographia, dyscalculia) was determined from parent-completed questionnaires at age 9 years. Linear regression calculated the mean difference in cognitive scores between children with and without NDs. Associations between NDs and PEs were expressed as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs); effects of cognitive deficits were examined. Potential confounders included age, gender, father's social class, ethnicity and maternal education.

Out of 8220 children, 487 (5.9%) were reported to have NDs at age 9 years. Children with, compared with those without, NDs performed worse on all cognitive measures; the adjusted mean difference in total IQ was 6.84 (95% CI 5.00–8.69). The association between total IQ and NDs was linear (p < 0.0001). The risk of PEs was higher in those with, compared with those without, NDs; the adjusted OR for definite PEs was 1.76 (95% CI 1.11–2.79). IQ (but not working memory) deficit partly explained this association.

Higher risk of PEs in early adolescence among individuals with childhood ND is consistent with the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia.