Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA.
Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2021 Apr 13;23(6):32. doi: 10.1007/s11920-021-01247-7.
While there has been sustained interest in understanding the role of reward processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), researchers are just beginning to focus on the anticipation phase of reward processing in this population. This review aimed to briefly summarize recent advancements in functional imaging studies of anticipatory social and nonsocial reward processing in individuals with and without ASD and provide suggestions for avenues of future research.
Reward salience and activation of the complex network of brain regions supporting reward anticipation vary across development and by important demographic characteristics, such as sex assigned at birth. Current research comparing social and nonsocial reward anticipation may possess confounds related to the mismatch in tangibility and salience of social and nonsocial experimental stimuli. Growing evidence suggests individuals with ASD demonstrate aberrant generalized reward anticipation that is not specific to social reward. Future research should carefully match social and nonsocial reward stimuli and consider employing a longitudinal design to disentangle the complex processes contributing to the development of reward anticipation. It may be useful to conceptualize differences in reward anticipation as a transdiagnostic factor, rather than an ASD-specific deficit.
目的综述：虽然人们一直有兴趣了解奖励处理在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）中的作用，但研究人员才刚刚开始关注该人群中奖励处理的预期阶段。本篇综述旨在简要总结 ASD 个体和非 ASD 个体的预期社会和非社会奖励处理的功能影像学研究的最新进展，并为未来的研究方向提供建议。
最新发现：奖励突显和支持奖励预期的复杂脑区网络的激活在整个发展过程中以及与重要人口统计学特征（例如出生时分配的性别）有关的方面存在差异。目前比较社会和非社会奖励预期的研究可能存在与社会和非社会实验刺激的可触知性和突显性不匹配相关的混杂因素。越来越多的证据表明，ASD 个体表现出异常的普遍奖励预期，这种预期并不特定于社会奖励。未来的研究应仔细匹配社会和非社会奖励刺激，并考虑采用纵向设计来理清导致奖励预期发展的复杂过程。将奖励预期的差异概念化为一种跨诊断因素，而不是 ASD 特异性缺陷，可能会有所帮助。
