ارتباط محرک پاداش و آموزش معکوس در افراد مبتلا به سیندروم اسپرگر

In the present study, performance of a group of adults with Asperger Syndrome (AS) on two series of object reversal and extinction was compared with that of a group of adults with typical development. Participants were requested to learn a stimulus-reward association rule and monitor changes in reward value of stimuli in order to gain as many points as possible. In order to assess whether difficulties with stimulus-reward association learning and with reversal and/or extinction might be related to social and behavioural impairments, we performed correlation analyses between test measures and scores measuring the severity of clinical symptoms in the areas of repetitive behaviours and social interaction as assessed by the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) [Lord, C., Rutter, M., & Le Couteur, A. (1994). Autism diagnostic interview-revised: A recise version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24, 659–685]. Individuals with AS showed difficulties in establishing rapid stimulus-reward associations, whereas no severe impairment was observed in reversal and extinction learning. In addition, the present findings show that these difficulties correlate with scores in social reciprocal interaction, suggesting that the diminished ability in the assignment of reinforcement value to incoming stimuli might be related to disturbances in social behaviour often reported in autism spectrum disorders.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are pervasive developmental disorders characterized by abnormal social interaction, communication problems, restricted interests and disruptive stereotypic movements. Within the domain of ASD, high functioning autism (HFA) commonly refers to individuals meeting criteria for autism with normal intellectual functioning and a history of speech and language delay. Those at the higher functioning end, diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome (AS, DSM-IV, American Psychiatry Association, 2000; ICD-10, World Health Organization, 1992), show no evidence of impaired language function and their intellectual abilities fall within the normal range. As individuals within the ASD, clinical features of HFA and AS include poor communication, inappropriate social interactions, restricted interests and stereotypic behaviour. Although cognitive abnormalities are generally more severe in HFA than in AS, it is widely accepted that both conditions are part of the same spectrum of syndromes. Therefore, in the present work, we did not intend to draw any distinction between HFA and AS.