Achievement

IGERT trainee Alice Lin and IGERT faculty Antonio Rangel and Ralph Adolphs found that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neuropsychiatric syndrome associated with social cognition impairments, process social rewards differently than do subjects from the general population. Using a reward learning task, they found substantial overlap in the neural circuitry associated with social and non-social reward processing. In individuals with ASD, however, exploratory neuroimaging in ASD showed hypoactivation of key reward areas during decision-making. This hypoactivation of key reward areas suggests that social cognition impairments may stem in part from more general reward processing impairments. This research was published in, Reduced social preferences in autism: evidence from charitable donations. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, forthcoming.