ArticlePLoS biology2020
Modeling flexible behavior in childhood to adulthood shows age-dependent learning mechanisms and less optimal learning in autism in each age group.
Article in PLoS biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 95 citations in OpenAlex.
- Examining the relationship between cognitive inflexibility and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in autistic children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2022Pooled it
- Promoting Self-Determination in Young Adults with Autism: A Multicenter, Mixed Methods Study.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Trial
- Atypical Resting-State EEG Graph Metrics of Network Efficiency Across Development in Autism and Their Association with Social Cognition: Results from the LEAP Study.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- A Multimodal Investigation of Flexibility and Socialization in Autistic Children With and Without ADHD.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Article
- Autistic children sample costly information with increased variability due to inflexible updating.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Integrated Interventions for Executive Function Deficits in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: From Cognitive Training to Neuroregulation.Alpha psychiatry · 2026Review
- Medial Frontal Theta Reduction Impairs Rule Switching via Prediction Error.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Computational modeling reveals cognitive processes in simple rodent depression tests.Cell reports methods · 2025Article
- Neurocomputational mechanisms of social presence effects on instrumental learning.Communications biology · 2025Article
- The relationship between anxious traits and learning about changes in stochasticity and volatility.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Predictive Processing During Cue-Outcome Associative Learning in Autistic Children.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- Different exploration strategies along the autism spectrum: diverging effects of autism diagnosis and autism traits.Molecular autism · 2025Article
- Cognitive Flexibility Mediates the Associations Between Perceived Stress, Social Camouflaging and Mental Health Challenges in Autistic Adults.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2025Article
- Dorsomedial and ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions differentially impact social influence and temporal discounting.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Interpretation of individual differences in computational neuroscience using a latent input approach.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Review
- Do autistic individuals show atypical performance in probabilistic learning? A comparison of cue-number, predictive strength, and prediction error.Molecular autism · 2025Article
- Understanding learning through uncertainty and bias.Communications psychology · 2025Review
- Autism Spectrum Disorder in adults: an integrative review about strategies for promotion and maintenance of quality of life.Sao Paulo medical journal = Revista paulista de medicina · 2025Review
- Effects of gymnastics exercises on executive function in children with autism spectrum disorder aged 6 to 9 years: a pilot study of a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Flexible behavior is critical for everyday decision-making and has been implicated in restricted, repetitive behaviors (RRB) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, how flexible behavior changes developmentally in ASD remains largely unknown. Here, we used a developmental approach and examined flexible behavior on a probabilistic reversal learning task in 572 children, adolescents, and adults (ASD N = 321; typical development [TD] N = 251). Using computational modeling, we quantified latent variables that index mechanisms underlying perseveration and feedback sensitivity. We then assessed these variables in relation to diagnosis, developmental stage, core autism symptomatology, and associated psychiatric symptoms. Autistic individuals showed on average more perseveration and less feedback sensitivity than TD individuals, and, across cases and controls, older age groups showed more feedback sensitivity than younger age groups. Computational modeling revealed that dominant learning mechanisms underpinning flexible behavior differed across developmental stages and reduced flexible behavior in ASD was driven by less optimal learning on average within each age group. In autistic children, perseverative errors were positively related to anxiety symptoms, and in autistic adults, perseveration (indexed by both task errors and model parameter estimates) was positively related to RRB. These findings provide novel insights into reduced flexible behavior in relation to clinical symptoms in ASD.
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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.