A Systematic Review of the Positive Valence System in Autism Spectrum Disorder
- PDF / 1,302,753 Bytes
- 31 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 17 Downloads / 176 Views
REVIEW
A Systematic Review of the Positive Valence System in Autism Spectrum Disorder Jessica E. Tschida 1
&
Benjamin E. Yerys 1,2
Received: 11 October 2019 / Accepted: 23 September 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
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. Keywords Autism . Reward processing . Positive valence system . Systematic review Difficulties with social skills are central to an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis. The social motivation hypothesis of ASD contends that these social challenges are a consequence of autistic individuals continually finding social aspects of the environment less rewarding compared with neurotypical individuals (Chevallier, Kohls, Troiani, Brodkin and Schultz, 2012; Dawson et al., 2005; Schultz, 2005).1 As autistic individuals are less motivated to orient 1 We use “identity-first” language due to a recent study showing that identityfirst language is preferred by autistic individuals (Kenny et al., 2016).
* Jessica E. Tschida [email protected] Benjamin E. Yerys [email protected] 1
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Roberts Center for Pediatric Research Building, Center for Autism Research, 2716 South Street, 5th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19146, USA
2
Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
towards social information and practice social behaviors, it is hypothesized that this decreased motivation makes it more difficult for social skills to develop (Dawson
Data Loading...
