Adults with autism spectrum disorders exhibit decreased sensitivity to reward parameters when making effort-based decisions

Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Gabriel S Dichter¹  James W Bodfish¹  Michael Treadway³  Joseph Aloi²  Cara R Damiano² 

[1] Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, CB# 7255, 101 Manning Drive, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7255, USA;Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB# 3270, Davie Hall, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-3270, USA;McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA, 02478, USA

关键词: Dopamine;    Autism spectrum disorders;    Decision-making;    Motivation;    Reward;   

Others  :  811879
DOI  :  10.1186/1866-1955-4-13

 received in 2011-12-05, accepted in 2012-05-21,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

Efficient effort expenditure to obtain rewards is critical for optimal goal-directed behavior and learning. Clinical observation suggests that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may show dysregulated reward-based effort expenditure, but no behavioral study to date has assessed effort-based decision-making in ASD.

Methods

The current study compared a group of adults with ASD to a group of typically developing adults on the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT), a behavioral measure of effort-based decision-making. In this task, participants were provided with the probability of receiving a monetary reward on a particular trial and asked to choose between either an “easy task” (less motoric effort) for a small, stable reward or a “hard task” (greater motoric effort) for a variable but consistently larger reward.

Results

Participants with ASD chose the hard task more frequently than did the control group, yet were less influenced by differences in reward value and probability than the control group. Additionally, effort-based decision-making was related to repetitive behavior symptoms across both groups.

Conclusions

These results suggest that individuals with ASD may be more willing to expend effort to obtain a monetary reward regardless of the reward contingencies. More broadly, results suggest that behavioral choices may be less influenced by information about reward contingencies in individuals with ASD. This atypical pattern of effort-based decision-making may be relevant for understanding the heightened reward motivation for circumscribed interests in ASD.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Damiano et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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