Abstract
Recent theories of decision making propose a shared value-related brain mechanism for encoding monetary and social rewards. We tested this model in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and control children. We monitored participants’ brain dynamics using high density-electroencephalography while they played a monetary and social reward tasks. Control children exhibited a feedback Error-Related Negativity (fERN) modulation and Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) source activation during both tasks. Remarkably, although cooperation resulted in greater losses for the participants, the betrayal options generated greater fERN responses. ADHD subjects exhibited an absence of fERN modulation and reduced ACC activation during both tasks. ASD subjects exhibited normal fERN modulation during monetary choices and inverted fERN/ACC responses in social options than did controls. These results suggest that in neurotypicals, monetary losses and observed disloyal social decisions induced similar activity in the brain value system. In ADHD children, difficulties in reward processing affected early brain signatures of monetary and social decisions. Conversely, ASD children showed intact neural markers of value-related monetary mechanisms, but no brain modulation by prosociality in the social task. These results offer insight into the typical and atypical developments of neural correlates of monetary and social reward processing.
Highlights
Decision Making, SDM), would involve similar neural modulations by rewards and punishments
Our hypotheses were the following: (1) the typically developing children would exhibit greater feedback Error-Related Negativity (fERN) responses in response to losses compared with wins in the MDM task and in response to betrayal compared with cooperation options in the SDM task; (2) due to a general deficit in reward mechanisms, the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) children would exhibit reduced fERN modulation and related Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) source activation in both MDM and SDM tasks; and (3) in the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children, we expected to observe normal fERN modulation and associated ACC source activation in the MDM task and fERN/ACC patterns that were opposite to those of the controls in the SDM task, i.e., the responses would be driven by monetary rewards rather than prosocial motivation
The individuals in the ADHD and ASD groups were selected from 60 outpatients of the Institute of Cognitive Neurology (INECO) and related institutions based on the following inclusion criteria: (1) age between 8 and 15, similar to previous studies[28,29] and (2) an ADHD or ASD diagnosis according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5)[30]
Summary
Decision Making, SDM), would involve similar neural modulations by rewards and punishments. Our hypotheses were the following: (1) the typically developing children would exhibit greater fERN responses (and associated ACC source activation) in response to losses compared with wins in the MDM task and in response to betrayal compared with cooperation options in the SDM task; (2) due to a general deficit in reward mechanisms, the ADHD children would exhibit reduced fERN modulation and related ACC source activation in both MDM and SDM tasks; and (3) in the ASD children, we expected to observe normal fERN modulation and associated ACC source activation in the MDM task and fERN/ACC patterns that were opposite to those of the controls in the SDM task, i.e., the responses would be driven by monetary rewards rather than prosocial motivation
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