Abstract
BackgroundDifferences in social communication are commonly reported in autism spectrum condition (ASC). A recent theory attributes this to a reduced motivation to engage with others, that is, deficits in social motivation. However, there are currently few simple, direct, behavioural ways to test this claim. This study uses a new behavioural measure of social motivation to test if preferences for direct gaze and face stimuli are linked to autistic traits or an ASC diagnosis. Our novel choose-a-movie (CAM) paradigm measures the effort participants invest to see particular stimuli. This aspect of social motivation is also known as social seeking.MethodsIn experiment 1, 80 typical adults completed the CAM task and a measure of autistic traits. In experiment 2, 30 adults with ASC and 24 age/IQ-matched typical adults completed the CAM paradigm.ResultsThe results from study one showed that typical adults prefer social stimuli over non-social, but this preference is weaker in those with higher levels of autistic traits. In study two, adults with ASC showed a significant reduction in their preference for direct gaze but little difference in their preference for faces without direct gaze.ConclusionsThese data show that social motivation can be measured in a simple, direct, behavioural paradigm. Furthermore, adults with ASC prefer direct gaze less than typical adults but may not avoid faces without direct gaze. This data advance our understanding of how social motivation may differ between those with and without autism.
Highlights
Differences in social communication are commonly reported in autism spectrum condition (ASC)
Results showed choices in the direct gaze vs. object trials were reliably influenced by the stimulus category (Wald chi square = 17.40, p < .001), effort (Wald chi square = 17.04, p = .002) and autistic traits (Wald chi square = 3.88, p = .049)
For choices between averted gaze movies and direct gaze movies, the interaction between stimuli and Autism Spectrum Quotient” (AQ) was a marginal predictor of choice (Wald chi square = 3.51, p = .061)
Summary
Differences in social communication are commonly reported in autism spectrum condition (ASC). This study uses a new behavioural measure of social motivation to test if preferences for direct gaze and face stimuli are linked to autistic traits or an ASC diagnosis. Our novel choose-a-movie (CAM) paradigm measures the effort participants invest to see particular stimuli. This aspect of social motivation is known as social seeking. We use a novel choose-a-movie paradigm to quantify preferences for social stimuli with and without direct gaze and demonstrate that these preferences differ in line with autism traits and autism diagnosis. Repeated studies demonstrate that certain stimuli, including food, money and some social stimuli are valued by participants and engage ‘reward related’ brain circuits [1].
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