Reduced preference for social rewards in a novel tablet based task in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScientific reports Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 3329 - 8
Main Authors Ruta, Liliana, Famà, Francesca Isabella, Bernava, Giuseppe Massimo, Leonardi, Elisa, Tartarisco, Gennaro, Falzone, Alessandra, Pioggia, Giovanni, Chakrabarti, Bhismadev
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Nature Publishing Group 12.06.2017
Nature Publishing Group UK
Nature Portfolio
Subjects
Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorder - psychology
Autistic children
Child
Child, Preschool
Children
Eye
Female
Humans
Infant
Male
Microcomputers
Motivation
Reinforcement
Reward
Social Behavior
Task Performance and Analysis
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Summary: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.
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ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-03615-x