Abstract
A deficit in empathy has been suggested to underlie social behavioural atypicalities in autism. A parallel theoretical account proposes that reduced social motivation (i.e., low responsivity to social rewards) can account for the said atypicalities. Recent evidence suggests that autistic traits modulate the link between reward and proxy metrics related to empathy. Using an evaluative conditioning paradigm to associate high and low rewards with faces, a previous study has shown that individuals high in autistic traits show reduced spontaneous facial mimicry of faces associated with high vs. low reward. This observation raises the possibility that autistic traits modulate the magnitude of evaluative conditioning. To test this, we investigated (a) if autistic traits could modulate the ability to implicitly associate a reward value to a social stimulus (reward learning/conditioning, using the Implicit Association Task, IAT); (b) if the learned association could modulate participants’ prosocial behaviour (i.e., social reciprocity, measured using the cyberball task); (c) if the strength of this modulation was influenced by autistic traits. In 43 neurotypical participants, we found that autistic traits moderated the relationship of social reward learning on prosocial behaviour but not reward learning itself. This evidence suggests that while autistic traits do not directly influence social reward learning, they modulate the relationship of social rewards with prosocial behaviour. Autism Res 2016, 9: 471–479. © 2015 The Authors Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Autism Research
Highlights
The social motivation hypothesis posits that atypical social behaviour in autism spectrum condition (ASC) could be caused by a failure to assign reward values to social stimuli and interactions [Chevallier, Kohls, Troiani, Brodkin, & Schultz, 2012; Dawson et al, 2004; Dawson, Webb, & McPartland, 2005]
Using an evaluative conditioning paradigm to associate high and low rewards with faces, a previous study has shown that individuals high in autistic traits show reduced spontaneous facial mimicry of faces associated with high vs. low reward
In order to control for the order of presentation, reaction times (RTs) of the cIAT were submitted to a 2 3 2 3 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Congruency and Version as within-subject factors and Order of Presentation (A–B vs. B–A) as between-subject factor
Summary
The social motivation hypothesis posits that atypical social behaviour in autism spectrum condition (ASC) could be caused by a failure to assign reward values to social stimuli and interactions [Chevallier, Kohls, Troiani, Brodkin, & Schultz, 2012; Dawson et al, 2004; Dawson, Webb, & McPartland, 2005]. Several studies have reported an aberrant functioning of the brain’s reward circuit in individuals with high autistic traits and those with a clinical diagnosis of ASC In some of these experiments, a reduced response to social rewards in comparison to nonsocial rewards was noted [Cox et al, 2015; Gossen et al, 2014; Schmitz et al, 2008; Scott-van Zeeland, Dapretto, Ghahremani, Poldrack, & Bookheimer, 2010]. Autistic traits have been shown to modulate the connectivity between ventral striatum an inferior frontal gyrus in response to high vs low conditioned happy faces [Sims, Neufeld, Johnstone, & Chakrabarti, 2014] To summarise, these studies have demonstrated how autistic traits modulate a connection between the reward value of social stimuli and the extent of spontaneous/automatic mimicry they elicit
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
