Adolescent-Specific Motivation Deficits in Autism Versus Typical Development.
Autistic teens skip the usual motivation surge for social rewards—so you must add your own rewards.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team compared autistic and neurotypical teens and young adults. They watched who paid attention to fun social cues like smiling faces.
The study used a lab computer task. Participants saw pictures and could win small rewards for quick looks at social images.
What they found
Typical teens looked more at social cues as they got older. Autistic teens did not show this age jump.
The gap stayed flat across adolescence. Social cues did not become more motivating for the ASD group.
How this fits with other research
Amaral et al. (2019) saw the same flat line. Their autistic pre-teens also helped less, even when they cared about others. Together the papers say motivation problems show up in both looking and doing.
Padmanabhan et al. (2015) extends the story to the brain. Autistic youth failed to show the usual teen growth in inhibitory control networks. Motivation, attention, and self-control all stall together.
Parsons et al. (1990) warned us first. They blamed poor sustained-attention scores on low task motivation, not true attention deficits. The new data prove the warning still matters for teens.
Why it matters
Do not assume autistic teens will "grow into" social motivation. Build external reinforcers for transition goals like job interviews or college clubs. Use clear tokens, favorite topics, or gamified apps to make social steps worth their while.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
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.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2020 · doi:10.1007/s10803-019-04258-9