Towards the Integration of Social Cognition and Social Motivation in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Social cognitive deficits are pervasive and well-studied in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but patterns of social cognition are rarely integrated with other seminal theories, such as the social motivation theory of autism. In this chapter, we first provide a brief review of research studies focused on social cognition, with special attention to theory of mind, face processing, and biological motion perception. We discuss how these social cognitive impairments in autism might be understood in the context of the social motivation theory of autism, followed by a review of neuroimaging studies of social cognition and social motivation, emphasizing how these generally separate literatures can be theoretically integrated. Finally, we discuss how nonsocial motivations might also explain the pattern of social cognitive deficits observed in ASD, and conclude with recommendations for how to incorporate autistic motivation/reward processing into clinical research and practice.