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Reconciling autistic individuals’ self-reported social motivation with diminished social reward responsiveness in neuroimaging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2019

Lisa D. Yankowitz
Affiliation:
Center for Autism Research, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. lisayank@sas.upenn.educlements@sas.upenn.edu
Caitlin C. Clements
Affiliation:
Center for Autism Research, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. lisayank@sas.upenn.educlements@sas.upenn.edu

Abstract

The self-report of some autistic individuals that they experience social motivation should not be interpreted as a refutation of neuroimaging evidence supporting the social motivation hypothesis of autism. Neuroimaging evidence supports subtle differences in unconscious reward processing, which emerge at the group level and which may not be perceptible to individuals, but which may nonetheless impact an individual's behavior.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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References

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