Enhanced social learning of threat in adults with autism

Molecular Autism

Steve Berggren¹  Sven Bölte²  Johan Lundin Kleberg³  Lisa Espinosa⁴  Andreas Olsson⁴  Björn Hofvander⁵ 

[1] Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Karolinska Institutet & Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden;Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden;Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Karolinska Institutet & Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden;Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden;Curtin Autism Research Group, School of Occupational Therapy, Social Work and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia;Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, & Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden;Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Nobels väg 9, 171 65 Solna, Stockholm, Sweden;Lund Clinical Research on Externalizing and Developmental Psychopathology (LU-CRED), Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden;Division of Forensic Psychiatry, Region Skåne, Trelleborg, Sweden;

关键词: Autism;    Social fear learning;    Vicarious threat;    Eye tracking;    Attention;    Social cognition;    Skin conductance;    Anxiety;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13229-020-00375-w

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundRecent theories have linked autism to challenges in prediction learning and social cognition. It is unknown, however, how autism affects learning about threats from others “demonstrators” through observation, which contains predictive learning based on social information. The aims of this study are therefore to investigate social fear learning in individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to examine whether typically developing social cognition is necessary for successful observational learning.MethodsAdults with ASD (n = 23) and neurotypical controls (n = 25) completed a social fear learning (SFL) procedure in which participants watched a “demonstrator” receiving electrical shocks in conjunction with a previously neutral conditioned stimulus (CS+), but never with a safe control stimulus (CS−). Skin conductance was used to measure autonomic responses of learned threat responses to the CS+ versus CS−. Visual attention was measured during learning using eye tracking. To establish a non-social learning baseline, each participant also underwent a test of Pavlovian conditioning.ResultsDuring learning, individuals with ASD attended less to the demonstrator’s face, and when later tested, displayed stronger observational, but not Pavlovian, autonomic indices of learning (skin conductance) compared to controls. In controls, both higher levels of attention to the demonstrator’s face and trait empathy predicted diminished expressions of learning during test.LimitationsThe relatively small sample size of this study and the typical IQ range of the ASD group limit the generalizability of our findings to individuals with ASD in the average intellectual ability range.ConclusionsThe enhanced social threat learning in individuals with ASD may be linked to difficulties using visual attention and mental state attributions to downregulate their emotion.

【 授权许可】

CC BY