Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:53:32.641Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reconciling autistic individuals’ self-reported social motivation with diminished social reward responsiveness in neuroimaging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2019

Lisa D. Yankowitz
Affiliation:
Center for Autism Research, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. [email protected]@sas.upenn.edu
Caitlin C. Clements
Affiliation:
Center for Autism Research, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. [email protected]@sas.upenn.edu

Abstract

The self-report of some autistic individuals that they experience social motivation should not be interpreted as a refutation of neuroimaging evidence supporting the social motivation hypothesis of autism. Neuroimaging evidence supports subtle differences in unconscious reward processing, which emerge at the group level and which may not be perceptible to individuals, but which may nonetheless impact an individual's behavior.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bottini, S. (2018) Social reward processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review of the social motivation hypothesis. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders 45:926. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2017.10.001.Google Scholar
Clements, C. C., Zoltowski, A. R., Yankowitz, L. D., Yerys, B. E., Schultz, R. T. & Herrington, J. D. (2018) Evaluation of the social motivation hypothesis of autism: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry 75(8):797808. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.1100.Google Scholar
Yuval-Greenberg, S. & Heeger, D. J. (2013) Continuous flash suppression modulates cortical activity in early visual cortex. Journal of Neuroscience 33(23):9635–43. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4612-12.2013.Google Scholar