Objective:

To investigate associations between parental Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP) traits and their executive function (EF) performance.

Approach:

• Participants: 20 high-BAP parents of children with ASD and 20 parents of typically developing children were assessed.
• Assessment Tools: The Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ) was utilized to evaluate BAP traits, and executive function was measured using the flanker, 2-back, and task-switching paradigms.
• Data Analysis: Correlations analysis was performed to analyze relationships between BAP traits and EF performance.

Key Findings:

• Parents of children with ASD had significantly higher BAPQ scores than parents of typically developing children (p < 0.01).
• Fathers of ASD children scored 41.21% on BAPQ versus 15% for controls (p < 0.01); mothers scored 26.25% versus 8.37% (p < 0.01).
• Parents of ASD children exhibited significantly prolonged reaction times on the Flanker task (p < 0.01).
• BAPQ total scores positively correlated with slower responses on the Flanker task (p = 0.0313).
• Parents of ASD children showed faster reaction times but reduced accuracy on the 2-Back task compared to controls (p < 0.01).

Interpretation:

BAP traits are associated with attentional control challenges and maladaptive speed-accuracy trade-offs during working memory tasks.

Limitations:

• The study's sample size was limited to 40 participants.
• The findings may not be generalizable beyond the studied population.

Conclusion:

The study highlights the relationship between parental BAP traits and executive function performance.