Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems, "Eduardo Caianiello" (ScienceApp) - National Research Council of Italy (CNR), via Torre Bianca, SNC, Istituto Marino, Pad. 4, 98164, Messina, Italy.
Department of Developmental Neuroscience, Stella Maris Scientific Institute, V.le del Tirreno 341, 56018, Calambrone, Pisa, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 12;7(1):3329. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-03615-x.
Atypical responsivity to social rewards has been observed in young children with or at risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). These observations contributed to the hypothesis of reduced social motivation in ASD. In the current study we develop a novel task to test social reward preference using a tablet computer (iPad), where two differently coloured buttons were associated with a social and a nonsocial rewarding image respectively. 63 young children, aged 14-68 months, with and without a diagnosis of ASD took part in the study. The experimental sessions were also recorded on video, using an in-built webcam on the tablet as well as an external camera. Children with ASD were found to show a reduced relative preference for social rewards, indexed by a lower proportion of touches for the button associated with the social reward image. Greater social preference as measured using the tablet-based task was associated with increased use of social communicative behaviour such as eye contact with the experimenter and social smile in response to the social reward image. These results are consistent with earlier findings from eye-tracking studies, and provide novel empirical insights into atypical social reward responsivity in ASD.
在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患儿或有患病风险的儿童中，观察到了对社会奖励的非典型反应性。这些观察结果促成了 ASD 中社会动机降低的假说。在当前的研究中，我们使用平板电脑（iPad）开发了一种新的任务来测试社会奖励偏好，其中两个不同颜色的按钮分别与社会奖励图像和非社会奖励图像相关联。63 名年龄在 14-68 个月之间的 ASD 患儿和非 ASD 患儿参加了这项研究。实验过程也使用平板电脑的内置网络摄像头和外部摄像头进行了录像。结果发现，ASD 儿童对社会奖励的相对偏好较低，表现为与社会奖励图像相关联的按钮的触摸比例较低。使用基于平板电脑的任务测量到的更大的社会偏好与更多的社会交际行为的使用有关，例如与实验者的眼神接触和对社会奖励图像的社会性微笑。这些结果与早期的眼动追踪研究结果一致，为 ASD 中异常的社会奖励反应性提供了新的实证见解。
