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Decision-Making in a Changing World: A Study in Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Abstract

To learn to deal with the unexpected is essential to adaptation to a social, therefore often unpredictable environment. Fourteen adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 15 controls underwent a decision-making task aimed at investigating the influence of either a social or a non-social environment, and its interaction with either a stable (with constant probabilities) or an unstable (with changing probabilities) context on their performance. Participants with ASD presented with difficulties in accessing underlying statistical rules in an unstable context, a deficit especially enhanced in the social environment. These results point out that the difficulties people with ASD encounter in their social life might be caused by impaired social cues processing and by the unpredictability associated with the social world.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all of the participants for making this research possible. This study was supported by a Scientific Research Council grant from the Vinatier Hospital Center; the work was performed within the framework of the LABEX CORTEX (ANR-11-LABX-0042) of Université de Lyon, within the program “Investissements d’Avenir” (ANR-11-IDEX-0007) operated by the French National Research Agency (ANR).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, INSERM, U1028, CNRS, UMR 5292, Lyon, France

    S. Robic, S. Sonié, P. Fonlupt, M.-A. Henaff, J. Mattout & C. Schmitz

  2. University Lyon, Lyon, France

    S. Robic, S. Sonié, P. Fonlupt, M.-A. Henaff, J. Mattout & C. Schmitz

  3. CEDA, Le Vinatier Hospital, Bron, France

    S. Sonié

  4. EPICIME-CIC, CHU-Lyon, Bron, France

    N. Touil

  5. Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, INSERM U960, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

    G. Coricelli

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  1. S. Robic
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Correspondence to C. Schmitz.

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Robic, S., Sonié, S., Fonlupt, P. et al. Decision-Making in a Changing World: A Study in Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 1603–1613 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2311-7

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