Neural Circuitry of Reward Loss in Autism Spectrum Disorders (2013)

Undergraduates: Dillon Cockrell, Cara Damiano

Faculty Advisor: Gabriel Dichter
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

---

The goal of this study was to examine the differences in neural connectivity between children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children in response to the loss of potential monetary or social rewards. Reward gain paradigms have implicated the ventral striatum as hypoactive in ASD adults, though reward loss in ASD children has yet to be examined. To measure the neural responses in anticipation and outcome phases of the loss of rewards, 15 ASD children and 10 TD children performed a behavioral task during an fMRI scan in which he or she could maintain a set amount of money or see a neutral face if successful. If unsuccessful, the participant would lose a dollar or see a frowning face depending on the trial reward type. Results indicated significant hypoactivity in the dorsal striatum for the ASD group during the anticipation of viewing facial images. Results also indicated a significant interaction of thalamus activation by reward type between the TD and ASD groups. Hypoactivity of the dorsal striatum for ASD children in anticipation of avoiding social rejection suggests a deficit in learning the expected outcomes of social stimuli and response relationships. The interaction of thalamus activity between the groups may suggest ASD children are more motivated by monetary rewards and less motivated by social rewards than TD children. Future research should focus on examining these findings with larger samples and among ASD adults.