Reward system dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders
Open accessAbstract
Although it has been suggested that social deficits of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are related to reward circuitry dysfunction, very little is known about the neural reward mechanisms in ASD. In the current functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated brain activations in response to both social and monetary reward in a group of children with ASD, relative to matched controls. Participants with ASD showed the expected hypoactivation in the mesocorticolimbic circuitry in response to both reward types. In particular, diminished activation in the nucleus accumbens was observed when money, but not when social reward, was at stake, whereas the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex were hypoactivated within the ASD group in response to both rewards. These data indicate that the reward circuitry is compromised in ASD in social as well as in non-social, i.e. monetary conditions, which likely contributes to atypical motivated behaviour. Taken together, with incentives used in this study sample, there is evidence for a general reward dysfunction in ASD. However, more ecologically valid social reward paradigms are needed to fully understand, whether there is any domain specificity to the reward deficit that appears evident in ASD, which would be most consistent with the ASD social phenotype.
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Deficits in social play in ASD are likely due to disrupted reward-seeking tendencies, especially in social contexts.
“Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show deficits in social play (Mundy, 1995;Jordan, 2003) which are likely due to disrupted reward-seeking tendencies, especially in social contexts (Chevallier et al., 2012;Kohls et al., 2012Kohls et al., , 2013)).”
From Vasopressin regulates social play behavior in sex-specific ways through glutamate modulation in the lateral septum (2025) · cites this paper as Kohls et al., 2013
The Introduction links reduced interest in social interactions in ASD to a hypothesized reward-circuit dysfunction, and the Discussion reports altered responses to social rewards in children with ASD. The paper does not examine social play specifically, so it supports the proposed mechanism for social difficulties but not its application to play deficits in particular. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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- Authors
- Kohls, G., Schulte-Rüther, M., Nehrkorn, B., Müller, K., Fink, G. R., Kamp-Becker, I., Herpertz-Dahlmann, B., Schultz, R. T., & Konrad, K.
- Affiliations
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (US)
- Venue
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2012-03-13
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 565-572
- ISSN
- 1749-5016 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-5024
- PMC
- PMC3682440
- OpenAlex
- W2141902149
- Cited by
- 259
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 10.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (IRTG1328)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, reward processing, social reward, monetary rewards, mesocorticolimbic circuitry, nucleus accumbens, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, hypoactivation, motivated behavior, children
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Analysis of Variance, Brain, Child, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Cues, Decision Making, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Learning Disabilities, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Motivation, Neuropsychological Tests, Oxygen, Photic Stimulation, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reaction Time, Reward, Severity of Illness Index, Case-Control Studies
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