Abstract
Atypical responsivity to social rewards has been observed in young children with or at risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). These observations contributed to the hypothesis of reduced social motivation in ASD. In the current study we develop a novel task to test social reward preference using a tablet computer (iPad), where two differently coloured buttons were associated with a social and a nonsocial rewarding image respectively. 63 young children, aged 14–68 months, with and without a diagnosis of ASD took part in the study. The experimental sessions were also recorded on video, using an in-built webcam on the tablet as well as an external camera. Children with ASD were found to show a reduced relative preference for social rewards, indexed by a lower proportion of touches for the button associated with the social reward image. Greater social preference as measured using the tablet-based task was associated with increased use of social communicative behaviour such as eye contact with the experimenter and social smile in response to the social reward image. These results are consistent with earlier findings from eye-tracking studies, and provide novel empirical insights into atypical social reward responsivity in ASD.
Highlights
One of the most commonly noted early signs of atypicalities in the social behavioural domains mentioned above is that of reduced responsiveness and/or attention to social signals
While the two groups were matched for age, there was a significant difference in gender and performance developmental quotient (PDQ)
The analysis of covariance showed a significant effect of group on social preference after controlling for gender and the PDQ scores (F(1, 53) = 10.92 p = 0.002, partial eta squared = 0.17), with the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) group making lower proportion of button presses for social images
Summary
One of the most commonly noted early signs of atypicalities in the social behavioural domains mentioned above is that of reduced responsiveness and/or attention to social signals. Preference for a certain type of reward in such paradigms can manifest as greater looking time/ attention to social (such as people, faces and eyes) as opposed to non-social stimuli (i.e. food, money, objects). In such paradigms, mixed findings have been reported depending on the kind of stimulus used, the experimental procedures/design and methodological considerations[26]. A separate group of studies have rather focused on testing the “reward seeking” (related to the anticipatory aspect of reward processing), typically measured using deliberate choice or effort made to obtain the reward outcome
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