Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by impaired predictive abilities; however, the neural mechanisms subsuming reward prediction errors in ASD are poorly understood. In the current study, we investigated neural responses during social and nonsocial reward prediction errors in 22 adolescents with ASD (ages 12–17) and 20 typically developing control adolescents (ages 12–18). Participants performed a reward prediction error task using both social (i.e., faces) and nonsocial (i.e., objects) rewards during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Reward prediction errors were defined in two ways: (a) the signed prediction error, the difference between the experienced and expected reward; and (b) the thresholded unsigned prediction error, the difference between expected and unexpected outcomes regardless of magnitude. During social reward prediction errors, the ASD group demonstrated the following differences relative to the TD group: (a) signed prediction error: decreased activation in the right precentral gyrus and increased activation in the right frontal pole; and (b) thresholded unsigned prediction error: increased activation in the right anterior cingulate gyrus and bilateral precentral gyrus. Groups did not differ in brain activation during nonsocial reward prediction errors. Within the ASD group, exploratory analyses revealed that reaction times and social‐communication impairments were related to precentral gyrus activation during social prediction errors. These findings elucidate the neural mechanisms of social reward prediction errors in ASD and suggest that ASD is characterized by greater neural atypicalities during social, relative to nonsocial, reward prediction errors in ASD. Autism Res 2020, 13: 715–728. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

中文翻译：

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自闭症谱系障碍青少年社交和非社交奖励预测错误的神经机制。

自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的特征是预测能力受损；然而，对于ASD中包含奖励预测误差的神经机制了解甚少。在当前的研究中，我们调查了22名ASD青少年（12-17岁）和20名典型发育对照青少年（12-18岁）在社交和非社交奖励预测错误期间的神经反应。在功能性磁共振成像扫描过程中，参与者使用社交（即面部）和非社交（即对象）奖励执行了奖励预测错误任务。奖励预测错误有两种定义：（a）签署的预测错误，即经验奖励与预期奖励之间的差；（b）阈值的无符号预测误差，即预期和未预期结果之间的差异，与大小无关。在社交奖励预测错误中，ASD组相对于TD组表现出以下差异：（a）有符号的预测错误：右中前回的激活减少而右额极的激活增加；（b）阈值的无符号预测误差：右前扣带回和双侧中央前回的激活增加。在非社会性奖励预测错误期间，各组在大脑激活方面没有差异。在ASD组中，探索性分析显示，在社会预测错误期间，反应时间和社交沟通障碍与中央前回激活有关。这些发现阐明了ASD中社交奖励预测错误的神经机制，并表明ASD的特征在于，与非社交，Autism Res 2020，13：715–728。©2020国际自闭症研究协会，Wiley Periodicals，Inc.。