The social motivation theory of autism

Abstract

The idea that social motivation deficits play a central role in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has recently gained increased interest. This constitutes a shift in autism research, which has traditionally focused more intensely on cognitive impairments, such as theory-of-mind deficits or executive dysfunction, and has granted comparatively less attention to motivational factors. This review delineates the concept of social motivation and capitalizes on recent findings in several research areas to provide an integrated account of social motivation at the behavioral, biological and evolutionary levels. We conclude that ASD can be construed as an extreme case of diminished social motivation and, as such, provides a powerful model to understand humans' intrinsic drive to seek acceptance and avoid rejection.

Figure 1

Social motivation constitutes an evolutionary adaptation geared to enhance the individual’s suitability for collaborative environments (ultimate level). The orbitofrontal-striatal-amygdala circuit, influenced by specific neuropeptides, underlies a range of behaviors including social orienting, social seeking and liking, and social maintaining (proximate level).

Figure I

Wilson, Tom Hank’s anthropomorphized companion in “Cast Away”

Figure I

Activation of the FFA to Digimon (top panel), but not to faces (bottom panel) in patient DD. Right and left are reversed by radiological convention. Voxels are colored if the smoothed data have at ≥4 (which corresponds to P < .0001 uncorrected). Adapted from [145].