Social-interactive reward elicits similar neural response in autism and typical development and predicts future social experiences

McNaughton, Kathryn; Kirby, Laura; Warnell, Katherine Rice; Alkire, Diana; Merchant, Junaid S.; Moraczewski, Dustin; Yarger, Heather A.; Thurm, Audrey; Redcay, Elizabeth

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101197

Cited by 6 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…(2018) and McNaughton et al. (2023). For the current follow‐up study, parents who had previously consented to be recontacted were emailed with information about this study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Autistic youth are also at increased risk for negative social outcomes such as loneliness, potentially due to these social challenges (Deckers et al., 2017; Han et al., 2019). However, recent work suggests that neural activity in response to social‐interactive reward is found in autistic youth to similar degrees as neurotypical (NT) youth, indicating transdiagnostic rather than group‐level variability in social reward processing (McNaughton et al., 2023). These individual differences in reward processing that cut across autistic and NT populations may have downstream effects on behavior and outcomes; for example, relative social reward activity in the VS in both autistic and NT youth is linked to an enjoyment of social experiences (McNaughton et al., 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, recent work suggests that neural activity in response to social‐interactive reward is found in autistic youth to similar degrees as neurotypical (NT) youth, indicating transdiagnostic rather than group‐level variability in social reward processing (McNaughton et al., 2023). These individual differences in reward processing that cut across autistic and NT populations may have downstream effects on behavior and outcomes; for example, relative social reward activity in the VS in both autistic and NT youth is linked to an enjoyment of social experiences (McNaughton et al., 2023). Examining how social‐interactive reward responses are linked to social behavior across diagnoses may serve to aid youth of all neurotypes who struggle with loneliness and other social difficulties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, recent work suggests that neural activity in response to social-interactive reward is found in autistic youth to similar degrees as neurotypical (NT) youth, indicating transdiagnostic rather than grouplevel variability in social reward processing (McNaughton et al, 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To be included, both NT and AUT participants had to have a minimum IQ of 80, assessed using the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (KBIT-2;Kaufman & Kaufman, 2004). Results from prior work can be found inWarnell et al (2018) andMcNaughton et al (2023). For the current follow-up study, parents who had previously consented to be recontacted were emailed with information about this study.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neural sensitivity to social reward predicts links between social behavior and loneliness in youth during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Dziura

McNaughton

Giacobbe

et al. 2023

Developmental Psychobiology

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Neural reward network sensitivity in youth is proposed to differentially impact the effects of social environments on social outcomes. The COVID‐19 pandemic provided an opportunity to test this hypothesis within a context of diminished in‐person social interaction. We examined whether neural sensitivity to interactive social reward moderates the relationship between a frequency of interactive or passive social activity and social satisfaction. Survey reports of frequency of interactions with friends, passive social media use, and loneliness and social satisfaction were gathered in 2020 during mandated precautions limiting in‐person contact. A subset of participants (age = 10–17) previously participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examining social‐interactive reward during a simulated peer interaction (survey n = 76; survey + fMRI n = 40). We found evidence of differential response to social context, such that youth with higher neural reward sensitivity showed a negative association between a frequency of interactive connections with friends and a combined loneliness and social dissatisfaction component (LSDC) score, whereas those with lower sensitivity showed the opposite effect. Further, high reward sensitivity was associated with greater LSDC as passive social media use increased, whereas low reward sensitivity showed the opposite. This indicates that youth with greater sensitivity to social‐interactive reward may be more susceptible to negative effects of infrequent contact than their low reward‐sensitive counterparts, who instead maintain social well‐being through passive viewing of social content. These differential outcomes could have implications for supporting youth during times of major social disruption as well as ensuring mental health and well‐being more broadly.

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“…(2018) and McNaughton et al. (2023). For the current follow‐up study, parents who had previously consented to be recontacted were emailed with information about this study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Neural sensitivity to social reward predicts links between social behavior and loneliness in youth during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Dziura

McNaughton

Giacobbe

et al. 2023

Developmental Psychobiology

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Abnormal functional connectivity of the reward network is associated with social communication impairments in autism spectrum disorder: A large-scale multi-site resting-state fMRI study

Yang,

Wang,

et al. 2024

Journal of Affective Disorders

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Social reward network connectivity differs between autistic and neurotypical youth during social interaction

Xie¹,

Moraczewski²,

McNaughton³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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A core feature of autism is difficulties with social interaction. Atypical social motivation is proposed to underlie these difficulties. However, prior work testing this hypothesis has shown mixed support and has been limited in its ability to understand real-world social-interactive processes in autism. We attempted to address these limitations by scanning neurotypical and autistic youth (n = 86) during a text-based reciprocal social interaction that mimics a "live" chat and elicits social reward processes. We focused on task-evoked functional connectivity (FC) of regions responsible for motivational-reward and mentalizing processes within the broader social reward circuitry. We found that task-evoked FC between these regions was significantly modulated by social interaction and receipt of social-interactive reward. Compared to neurotypical peers, autistic youth showed significantly greater task-evoked connectivity of core regions in the mentalizing network (e.g., posterior superior temporal sulcus) and the amygdala, a key node in the reward network. Furthermore, across groups, the connectivity strength between these mentalizing and reward regions was negatively correlated with self-reported social motivation and social reward during the scanner task. Our results highlight an important role of FC within the broader social reward circuitry for social-interactive reward. Specifically, greater context-dependent FC (i.e., differences between social engagement and non-social engagement) may indicate an increased "neural effort" during social reward and relate to differences in social motivation within autistic and neurotypical populations.

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Social-interactive reward elicits similar neural response in autism and typical development and predicts future social experiences

Cited by 6 publications

References 62 publications

Neural sensitivity to social reward predicts links between social behavior and loneliness in youth during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Neural sensitivity to social reward predicts links between social behavior and loneliness in youth during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abnormal functional connectivity of the reward network is associated with social communication impairments in autism spectrum disorder: A large-scale multi-site resting-state fMRI study

Social reward network connectivity differs between autistic and neurotypical youth during social interaction

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