ArticleBrain : a journal of neurology2018
Deficits in mesolimbic reward pathway underlie social interaction impairments in children with autism.
Article in Brain : a journal of neurology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 76 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
76 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 130 citations in OpenAlex.
- Distinct neurobiological alterations during hedonic experience of rewards in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder: Multimodal evidence from neuroimaging meta-analyses.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Brainstem Contributions to Autism Spectrum Disorder.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Safety and efficacy of AST-001 in children with autism spectrum disorder: a 52-week multicenter long-term follow-up study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Disruption of dopamine D2/D3 system function impairs the human ability to understand the mental states of other people.PLoS biology · 2024Trial
- Sex differences in ferroptosis-related vulnerability to autism-like deficits in the adolescent medial prefrontal cortex following embryonic valproic acid exposure.Biology of sex differences · 2026Article
- Cell-type-specific disruption of nucleus accumbens social representations in a mouse model of autism.Neuron · 2026Article
- Myelin, white matter, and social deficits in autism spectrum disorder.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- The nucleus accumbens to ventral pallidum pathway regulates social play behavior via sex-specific mechanisms in juvenile rats.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- Shared and divergent alteration of whole-brain connectivity and sensory deficits in multiple autism mouse models.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Specific Reduction of Dopaminergic Fiber Input to Ventrobasal Forebrain Targets in Neonatal Mice Following Prenatal Exposure to Valproate.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Reward processing differences in autism: current understandings and future directions.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Review
- To play or not to play? Effects of social isolation length and stimulus rat familiarity on social play engagement in three laboratory rat strains.Physiology & behavior · 2025Article
- Mapping along-tract commissural and association white matter microstructural differences in autistic children and young adults.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Article
- Early Postnatal Shank3 Downregulation in the Nucleus Accumbens Impairs Performance in Social Conditioning Paradigms in Male Mice.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Article
- Brain circuits that regulate social behavior.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Review
- Altered Neural Activity in the Mesoaccumbens Pathway Underlies Impaired Social Reward Processing in Shank3-Deficient Rats.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- A review of the effects of different types of social behaviors on the recruitment of neuropeptides and neurotransmitters in the nucleus accumbens.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2025Review
- Understanding the development of a functional brain circuit: reward processing as an illustration.Translational psychiatry · 2025Review
- Efficacy and Safety of Neuromodulation Interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorders with Comorbidities: A Systematic Review.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2025Review
- Article
16 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Lack of interest in social interaction is a hallmark of autism spectrum disorder. Animal studies have implicated the mesolimbic reward pathway in driving and reinforcing social behaviour, but little is known about the integrity of this pathway and its behavioural consequences in children with autism spectrum disorder. Here we test the hypothesis that the structural and functional integrity of the mesolimbic reward pathway is aberrant in children with autism spectrum disorder, and these aberrancies contribute to the social interaction impairments. We examine structural and functional connectivity of the mesolimbic reward pathway in two independent cohorts totalling 82 children aged 7-13 years with autism spectrum disorder and age-, gender-, and intelligence quotient-matched typically developing children (primary cohort: children with autism spectrum disorder n = 24, typically developing children n = 24; replication cohort: children with autism spectrum disorder n = 17, typically developing children n = 17), using high angular resolution diffusion-weighted imaging and functional MRI data. We reliably identify white matter tracts linking-the nucleus accumbens and the ventral tegmental area-key subcortical nodes of the mesolimbic reward pathway, and provide reproducible evidence for structural aberrations in these tracts in children with autism spectrum disorder. Further, we show that structural aberrations are accompanied by aberrant functional interactions between nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area in response to social stimuli. Crucially, we demonstrate that both structural and functional circuit aberrations in the mesolimbic reward pathway are related to parent-report measures of social interaction impairments in affected children. Our findings, replicated across two independent cohorts, reveal that deficits in the mesolimbic reward pathway contribute to impaired social skills in childhood autism, and provide fundamental insights into neurobiological mechanisms underlying reduced social interest in humans.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.