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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 13, 2026

An Electrophysiology Protocol to Measure Reward Anticipation and Processing in Children

An Electrophysiology Protocol to Measure Reward Anticipation and Processing in Children

Published on: October 4, 2018

Reward processing in autism.

Ashley A Scott-Van Zeeland¹, Mirella Dapretto, Dara G Ghahremani

¹Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Autism Research : Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research

|May 4, 2010

Summary

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show reduced neural responses to social rewards, impacting social learning. This study investigated social and monetary reward processing in ASD using fMRI.

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An Electrophysiology Protocol to Measure Reward Anticipation and Processing in Children

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Published on: April 22, 2015

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Developmental Psychology
Psychiatry

Background:

The social motivation hypothesis suggests autism involves reduced reward from social stimuli, impacting development.
Previous research explored downstream effects, but direct investigation of social reward processing in autism is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

To directly investigate social reward processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
To examine neural responses to social and monetary rewards during implicit learning in children with and without ASD.
To explore the relationship between neural reward processing, learning, and social development.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan 16 males with ASD and 16 typically developing (TD) males.
Participants performed implicit learning tasks with social and monetary rewards.
Neural responses to reward and learning circuitry were analyzed.

Main Results:

Children with ASD exhibited diminished neural responses to both social and monetary rewards, with a more pronounced reduction for social rewards (SR).
A deficit in frontostriatal response during social, but not monetary, rewarded learning was observed in ASD.
Ventral striatum activity correlated with social reciprocity in TD children.

Conclusions:

Data support the social motivation hypothesis, indicating diminished neural responses to SR in children with ASD.
This deficit in social reward processing is linked to social learning impairments in autism spectrum disorder.