Neural correlates of preferred activities: development of an interest-specific go/nogo task

Adolescent-Specific Motivation Deficits in Autism Versus Typical Development

Differences in motivation during adolescence relative to childhood and adulthood in autism was tested in a cross-sectional study. 156 Typically developing individuals and 79 individuals with autism ages 10-30 years of age completed a go/nogo task with social and non-social cues. To assess age effects, linear and quadratic models were used. Consistent with prior studies, typically developing adolescents and young adults demonstrated more false alarms for positive relative to neutral social cues. In autism, there were no changes in attention across age for social or non-social cues. Findings suggest reduced orienting to motivating cues during late adolescence and early adulthood in autism. The findings provide a unique perspective to explain the challenges for adolescents with autism transitioning to adulthood.

ERP study on the associations of peripheral oxytocin and prolactin with inhibitory processes involving emotional distraction

BACKGROUND

Child maltreatment is a major health and social welfare problem, with serious and longstanding consequences. Impulse control ability plays an important role in reducing the risk of child maltreatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations of oxytocin (OXT) and prolactin (PRL) with behavior inhibition using children's facial expressions (angry or neutral) as emotional distractions. This may clarify a part of the neuroendocrinological mechanism that modulates impulse control ability in the context of child caregiving.

METHODS

Participants were 16 females who had never been pregnant. Following venous blood sampling for OXT and PRL levels, participants performed an emotional Go/Nogo task during their follicular and luteal phases to test inhibitory control ability. Behavioral performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) during the task were measured.

RESULTS

The results showed that there were significant fixed effects of OXT on behavioral performance, as measured by sensitivity (d-prime). This suggests that high peripheral OXT levels may be associated with better performance on the emotional Go/Nogo task, regardless of emotional distractors. PRL was associated with inhibitory processes as reflected by the Nogo-N2 and Nogo-P3. Particularly, high PRL levels were associated with the Nogo-N2 latency extension with the emotional distractors.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that OXT might be associated with improving behavioral performance regardless of emotional processes. It is suggested that processes related to PRL are related to premotor activities of behavioral inhibitions and emotions.

Rigidity coincides with reduced cognitive control to affective cues in children with autism

The present study tested whether salient affective cues would negatively influence cognitive control in children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One hundred children aged 6-12 years who were either typically developing or had ASD performed a novel go/no-go task to cues of their interest versus cues of noninterest. Linear mixed-effects (LME) models for hit rate, false alarms, and the sensitivity index d' were used to test for group differences. Caregivers completed the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised to test associations between repetitive behaviors and task performance. Children with ASD had reduced cognitive control toward their interests compared with typically developing children. Further, children with ASD showed reduced cognitive control to interests compared with noninterests, a pattern not observed in typically developing children. Decreased cognitive control toward interests was associated with higher insistence on sameness behavior in ASD, but there was no association between sameness behavior and cognitive control for noninterests. Together, children with ASD demonstrated decreased cognitive flexibility in the context of increased affective salience related to interests. These results provide a mechanism for how salient affective cues, such as interests, interfere with daily functioning and social communication in ASD. Further, the findings have broader clinical implications for understanding how affective cues can drive interactions between restricted patterns of behavior and cognitive control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).