Abstract
This review synthesized current literature of behavioral and cognitive studies targeting reward processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Positive Valence System (PVS) domain was used as an overarching framework. The objectives were to determine which component operations of reward processing may be atypical in ASD and consequently postulate a heuristic model of reward processing in ASD that could be evaluated with future research. 34 studies were identified from the Embase, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases and included in the review using guidelines from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (also known as PRISMA guidelines). The extant literature suggested potential relationships between social symptoms of ASD and PVS sub-constructs of reward anticipation, probabilistic and reinforcement learning, reward prediction error, reward (probability), delay, and effort as well as between restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests (RRBIs) and PVS-sub constructs of initial response to reward, reward anticipation, reward (probability), delay, and effort. However, these findings are limited by a sparse and mixed literature for some sub-constructs. We put forward a developmentally informed heuristic model that posits how these component reward processes may be implicated in early ASD behaviors as well as later emerging and more intransigent symptoms. Future research is needed to comprehensively evaluate the proposed model.
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Notes
We use “identity-first” language due to a recent study showing that identity-first language is preferred by autistic individuals (Kenny et al., 2016).
References
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The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Allerton Foundation, or the National Institutes of Health.
The authors thank Maya G. Mosner, PhD, Center for Autism Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript and Juliet Kilcoyne, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for helpful contributions to revising manuscript figures.
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The present view was supported by funding from the Allerton Foundation to B.E. Yerys and an Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center grant from the National Institute of Child and Human Development (P30HD026979, PI: M. Robinson and R.T. Schultz).
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Both authors contributed to the study conception and design, material preparation, and data collection. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Jessica E. Tschida and both authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Tschida, J.E., Yerys, B.E. A Systematic Review of the Positive Valence System in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Neuropsychol Rev 31, 58–88 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-020-09459-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-020-09459-z