Vicarious Effort-Based Decision-Making in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Mosner, Maya G.; Kinard, Jessica L.; McWeeny, Sean; Shah, Jasmine S.; Markiewitz, Nathan; Damiano-Goodwin, Cara R.; Burchinal, Margaret; Rutherford, Helena J. V.; Greene, Rachel K.; Treadway, Michael T.; Dichter, Gabriel S.

doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3220-3

Cited by 28 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(83 reference statements)

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“…VENs have been found to be absent or dysmorphic in various disease processes such as autism (Santos et al, 2011), schizophrenia (Brüne et al, 2011), and agenesis of the corpus callosum (Kaufman et al, 2008). These three disorders are related to alterations in effort-based decision-making (Brown et al, 2012;Damiano et al, 2012;Fervaha et al, 2013;Gold et al, 2013;Treadway et al, 2015;Mosner et al, 2017;Culbreth et al, 2018).…”

Section: Intrinsic Organization and Specificity Of The Cortical Colummentioning

confidence: 99%

An Integrative Model of Effortful Control

André

Audiffren

Baumeister

2019

Front. Syst. Neurosci.

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This article presents an integrative model of effortful control, a resource-limited top-down control mechanism involved in mental tasks and physical exercises. Based on recent findings in the fields of neuroscience, social psychology and cognitive psychology, this model posits the intrinsic costs related to a weakening of the connectivity of neural networks underpinning effortful control as the main cause of mental fatigue in long and high-demanding tasks. In this framework, effort reflects three different interrelated aspects of the same construct. First, effort is a mechanism comprising a limited number of interconnected processing units that integrate information regarding the task constraints and subject's state. Second, effort is the main output of this mechanism, namely, the effort signal that modulates neuronal activity in brain regions involved in the current task to select pertinent information. Third, effort is a feeling that emerges in awareness during effortful tasks and reflects the costs associated with goal-directed behavior. Finally, the model opens new avenues for research investigating effortful control at the behavioral and neurophysiological levels.

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Section: Intrinsic Organization and Specificity Of The Cortical Colummentioning

confidence: 99%

An Integrative Model of Effortful Control

André

Audiffren

Baumeister

2019

Front. Syst. Neurosci.

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“…Additionally, although delay and social discounting tasks both involve reward processing, only social discounting involves the reward of giving to another, which may recruit social‐cognitive brain networks outside of the reward system (Morelli, Sacchet, & Zaki, ). There is some limited evidence for atypical processing of others' rewards in autism (Mosner et al, ), but the construct remains understudied in ASD despite its core role in human social relationships (Morelli, Lieberman, & Zaki, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social and delay discounting in autism spectrum disorder

et al. 2019

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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.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.

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“…e MTG has also previously been implicated in theory of mind abilities [62,63], social perception [64], and empathic judgements [65], and relatively diminished activation within the MTG in individuals with ASD has previously been reported in response to social mentalizing tasks [66,67]. Taken together, ASD hypoactivation in the MTG may underlie observed deficits in behavioral vicarious reward responses [25], as well as broader social cognitive deficits inherent to the disorder. Whereas the TDC vicarious reward literature does not specifically implicate striatal regions as being preferentially activated for vicarious reward processing [16], it is noteworthy that individuals with ASD showed reduced activation during vicarious reward outcomes in the caudate nucleus, given its established role in reward processing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Individuals with ASD appear to be somewhat immune to this effect and are equally generous whether they are observed or not [18]. Furthermore, Mosner et al [25] reported that individuals with ASD demonstrated unimpaired expended effort for monetary rewards for oneself, but they demonstrated reduced sensitivity to reward magnitude parameters when earning rewards for others. Taken together, these behavioral findings support a hypothesis of altered vicarious reward processing in ASD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…e present study examined neural activation and connectivity in adults with ASD in response to rewards earned for themselves (standard reward condition) and others (vicarious reward condition) using an adapted version of the monetary incentive delay (MID) task [38]. Given previous findings that individuals with ASD demonstrate reduced sensitivity to behavioral reward magnitude parameters when earning vicarious rewards, but not rewards for oneself [25], the current study hypothesized that group differences in neural activation and connectivity in canonical reward processing regions would be relatively more pronounced in response to vicarious reward anticipation and receipt. Exploratory analyses evaluated relations between neural activation and ASD symptom severity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neural Mechanisms of Vicarious Reward Processing in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Greene

Damiano-Goodwin

Walsh

et al. 2020

Autism Research and Treatment

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Previous studies examining the neural substrates of reward processing in ASD have explored responses to rewards for oneself but not rewards earned for others (i.e., vicarious reward). This omission is notable given that vicarious reward processing is a critical component of creating and maintaining social relationships. The current study examined the neural mechanisms of vicarious reward processing in 15 adults with ASD and 15 age- and gender-matched typically developing controls. Individuals with ASD demonstrated attenuated activation of reward-related regions during vicarious reward processing. Altered connectivity was also observed in individuals with ASD during reward receipt. These findings of altered neural sensitivity to vicarious reward processing may represent a mechanism that hinders the development of social abilities in ASD.

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Vicarious Effort-Based Decision-Making in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Cited by 28 publications

References 56 publications

An Integrative Model of Effortful Control

An Integrative Model of Effortful Control

Social and delay discounting in autism spectrum disorder

Neural Mechanisms of Vicarious Reward Processing in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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