Dataset Information

Intact Reflexive but Deficient Voluntary Social Orienting in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

ABSTRACT: Impairment in social interactions is a primary characteristic of people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although these individuals tend to orient less to naturalistic social cues than do typically developing (TD) individuals, laboratory experiments testing social orienting in ASD have been inconclusive, possibly because of a failure to fully isolate reflexive (stimulus-driven) and voluntary (goal-directed) social orienting processes. The purpose of the present study was to separately examine potential reflexive and/or voluntary social orienting differences in individuals with ASD relative to TD controls. Subjects (ages 7-14) with high-functioning ASD and a matched control group completed three gaze cueing tasks on an iPad in which individuals briefly saw a face with averted gaze followed by a target after a variable delay. Two tasks were 100% predictive with either all congruent (target appears in gaze direction) or all incongruent (target appears opposite from gaze direction) trials, respectively. Another task was non-predictive with these same trials (half congruent and half incongruent) intermixed randomly. Response times (RTs) to the target were used to calculate reflexive (incongruent condition RT-congruent condition RT) and voluntary (non-predictive condition RT-predictive condition RT) gaze cueing effects. Subjects also completed two additional non-social orienting tasks (ProPoint and AntiPoint). Subjects with ASD demonstrate intact reflexive but deficient voluntary gaze following. Similar results were found in a separate test of non-social orienting. This suggests problems with using social cues, but only in a goal-directed fashion, in our sample of high-functioning individuals with ASD. Such findings may not only explain inconclusive previous findings but more importantly be critical for understanding social dysfunctions in ASD and for developing future interventions.

SUBMITTER: Kirchgessner MA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4665260 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Intact Reflexive but Deficient Voluntary Social Orienting in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Kirchgessner Megan A MA Chuang Alice Z AZ Patel Saumil S SS Sereno Anne B AB

Frontiers in neuroscience 20151201

Impairment in social interactions is a primary characteristic of people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although these individuals tend to orient less to naturalistic social cues than do typically developing (TD) individuals, laboratory experiments testing social orienting in ASD have been inconclusive, possibly because of a failure to fully isolate reflexive (stimulus-driven) and voluntary (goal-directed) social orienting processes. The purpose of the present study was to separat ...[more]

PMID: 26648841

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Project description:Current literature is divided over whether and how processes such as perspective taking and reward sensitivity differ between individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) versus neurotypical individuals. Discounting tasks may provide novel insight into how these processes operate. In delay discounting tasks, participants choose between smaller immediate rewards and larger delayed rewards, and in social discounting tasks, participants choose between a smaller monetary rewards for themselves versus a larger reward for partners of varied social distance (e.g., a close friend vs. an acquaintance). Delay and social discounting tasks thus implicitly measure the subjective value of rewards given to one's future self and to others, capturing constructs such as perspective taking, reward processing, and social closeness, all of which have been discussed as core cognitive mechanisms underlying ASD. Despite extensive research on discounting in other clinical populations, few studies have examined delay discounting in ASD and no research has examined social discounting in ASD. The goal of the current study was to assess delay and social discounting for monetary rewards in a single sample of adolescents and adults with ASD compared to a matched neurotypical sample. Overall, adults and adolescents with ASD valued both future rewards and rewards given to others less than their typical counterparts did, but rates of discounting were not significantly correlated across temporal and social domains. These results extend an important behavioral paradigm for understanding both perspective taking and reward processing to autism. Autism Res 2019, 12: 870-877. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Discounting tasks-which experimentally measure the subjective value of different rewards-have been used with a variety of clinical populations, but are underexplored in ASD. We found that compared to neurotypical individuals, individuals with ASD showed diminished subjective value for future rewards (compared to immediate rewards) and rewards for others (compared to rewards for self). This finding has implications for understanding perspective taking, reward processing, and social closeness in ASD.

Project description:BACKGROUND:More refined dimensions of social-communication impairment are needed to elucidate the clinical and biological boundaries of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other childhood onset psychiatric disorders associated with social difficulties, as well as to facilitate investigations in treatment and long-term outcomes of these disorders. METHODS:This study was intended to identify separable dimensions of clinician-observed social-communication impairments by examining scores on a widely used autism diagnostic instrument. Participants included verbally fluent children ages 3-13 years, who were given a clinical diagnosis of ASD (n = 120) or non-ASD (i.e. ADHD, language disorder, intellectual disability, mood or anxiety disorder; n = 118) following a comprehensive diagnostic assessment. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis examined the factor structure of algorithm items from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), Module 3. RESULTS:Results indicated that a three-factor model consisting of repetitive behaviors and two separate social-communication behavior factors had superior fit compared to a two-factor model that included repetitive behaviors and one social-communication behavior factor. In the three-factor model, impairments in 'Basic Social-Communication' behaviors (e.g. eye contact, facial expressions, gestures) were separated from impairments in 'Interaction quality.' Confirmatory factor analysis in an independent sample of children in the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC) further supported the division of social-communication impairments into these two factors. Scores in Interaction Quality were significantly associated with nonverbal IQ and male sex in the ASD group, and with age in the non-ASD group, while scores in basic social communication were not significantly associated with any of these child characteristics in either diagnostic group. CONCLUSIONS:Efforts to conceptualize level, or severity, of social-communication impairment in children with neurodevelopmental disorders might be facilitated by separating the most basic (or proximal) social-communication impairments from those that could arise from a range of other phenotypic variables. Identification of social-communication subdimensions also highlights potential avenues for measuring different types of social-communication impairments for different purposes (e.g. for differential diagnosis vs. response to treatment).

Dataset Information

Intact Reflexive but Deficient Voluntary Social Orienting in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Publications

Intact Reflexive but Deficient Voluntary Social Orienting in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

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