Stavropoulos Katherine K M, Carver Leslie J
Graduate School of Education, University of California, Riverside;
Psychology Department, University of California, San Diego.
J Vis Exp. 2018 Oct 4(140):58348. doi: 10.3791/58348.
We present a protocol designed to measure the neural correlates of reward in children. The protocol allows researchers to measure both reward anticipation and processing. Its purpose is to create a reward task that is appropriate for young children with and without autism while controlling reward properties between two conditions: social and nonsocial. The current protocol allows for comparisons of brain activity between social and nonsocial reward conditions while keeping the reward itself identical between conditions. Using this protocol, we found evidence that neurotypical children demonstrate enhanced anticipatory brain activity during the social condition. Furthermore, we found that neurotypical children anticipate social reward more robustly than children with autism diagnoses. As the task uses snacks as a reward, it is most appropriate for young children. However, the protocol may be adapted for use with adolescent or adult populations if snacks are replaced by monetary incentives. The protocol is designed to measure electrophysiological events (event-related potentials), but it may be customized for use with eye-tracking or fMRI.
我们提出了一种旨在测量儿童奖励神经关联的方案。该方案使研究人员能够测量奖励预期和处理过程。其目的是创建一个适合患有和未患有自闭症的幼儿的奖励任务，同时在两种条件（社交和非社交）之间控制奖励属性。当前方案允许在社交和非社交奖励条件之间比较大脑活动，同时使条件之间的奖励本身保持相同。使用该方案，我们发现有证据表明，典型神经发育儿童在社交条件下表现出增强的预期脑活动。此外，我们发现典型神经发育儿童比患有自闭症的儿童更强烈地预期社交奖励。由于该任务使用零食作为奖励，因此它最适合幼儿。然而，如果将零食替换为金钱奖励，该方案可能适用于青少年或成人人群。该方案旨在测量电生理事件（事件相关电位），但也可以定制用于眼动追踪或功能磁共振成像。
