Social orienting and social seeking behaviors in ASD. A meta analytic investigation

Hedger, N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2733-1913, Dubey, I. and Chakrabarti, B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6649-7895 (2020) Social orienting and social seeking behaviors in ASD. A meta analytic investigation. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 119. pp. 376-395. ISSN 0149-7634 doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.10.003

Abstract/Summary

Social motivation accounts of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) posit that individuals with ASD find social stimuli less rewarding than neurotypical (NT) individuals. Behaviorally, this is proposed to manifest in reduced social orienting (individuals with ASD direct less attention towards social stimuli) and reduced social seeking (individuals with ASD invest less effort to receive social stimuli). In two meta-analyses, involving data from over 6000 participants, we review the available behavioral studies that assess social orienting and social seeking behaviors in ASD. We found robust evidence for reduced social orienting in ASD, across a range of paradigms, demographic variables and stimulus contexts. The most robust predictor of this effect was interactive content - effects were larger when the stimulus involved an interaction between people. By contrast, the evidence for reduced social seeking indicated weaker evidence for group differences, observed only under specific experimental conditions. The insights gained from this meta-analysis can inform design of relevant task measures for social reward responsivity and promote directions for further study on the ASD phenotype.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/93687
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.10.003
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary centres and themes > ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders) Research Network Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Psychopathology and Affective Neuroscience
Publisher	Elsevier
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