Processing of social and monetary rewards in autism spectrum disorders.

This brain imaging study looked at how autistic people respond to rewards (both social and money rewards). Researchers found that autistic participants showed less brain activity in reward areas when expecting rewards, but this happened for both social and money rewards - not just social ones. This suggests that differences in motivation and reward-seeking in autism aren't specifically about social situations, but may be a more general pattern.

This large neuroimaging study examined reward processing in 212 individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 181 typically developing participants aged 7.6-30.8 years. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers assessed brain responses to both social and monetary rewards during anticipation and delivery phases. Results showed hypoactivation in the right ventral striatum during reward anticipation across both reward types in ASD participants compared to controls. Region of interest analysis confirmed bilateral ventral striatum hypoactivation.

Importantly, these findings were not specific to social rewards, contradicting theories that link autism's social difficulties to specific social reward processing deficits. Instead, the study suggests a generalized reduction in reward-seeking behavior in autism, independent of social content.

Findings suggest interventions targeting general motivation and reward-seeking rather than social-specific approaches may be beneficial. The influence of co-occurring ADHD on reward processing should be considered in clinical assessment and treatment planning for autistic individuals.

The study did not find significant hyperactivation during reward delivery after correction for multiple comparisons. Dimensional analyses of autism and ADHD scores were not significant. The abstract does not specify details about task design or control for potential confounding variables.

Reward processing has been proposed to underpin the atypical social feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, previous neuroimaging studies have yielded inconsistent results regarding the specificity of atypicalities for social reward processing in ASD. Utilising a large sample, we aimed to assess reward processing in response to reward type (social, monetary) and reward phase (anticipation, delivery) in ASD. Functional magnetic resonance imaging during social and monetary reward anticipation and delivery was performed in 212 individuals with ASD (7.6-30.6 years of age) and 181 typically developing participants (7.6-30.8 years of age).

Across social and monetary reward anticipation, whole-brain analyses showed hypoactivation of the right ventral striatum in participants with ASD compared with typically developing participants. Further, region of interest analysis across both reward types yielded ASD-related hypoactivation in both the left and right ventral striatum. Across delivery of social and monetary reward, hyperactivation of the ventral striatum in individuals with ASD did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. Dimensional analyses of autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) scores were not significant.

In categorical analyses,comparisons showed that ASD effects were most pronounced in participants with ASD without co-occurring ADHD. Our results do not support current theories linking atypical social interaction in ASD to specific alterations in social reward processing. Instead, they point towards a generalised hypoactivity of ventral striatum in ASD during anticipation of both social and monetary rewards. We suggest this indicates attenuated reward seeking in ASD independent of social content and that elevated ADHD symptoms may attenuate altered reward seeking in ASD.