Altered neural mechanisms of deception in individuals with autistic traits

Wenrui Li; Bowen Huang; Youming Song; Lulu Hou; Wendian Shi

doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2023.106005

Altered neural mechanisms of deception in individuals with autistic traits

Brain Cogn. 2023 Aug:170:106005. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2023.106005. Epub 2023 Jun 13.

Authors

Wenrui Li¹, Bowen Huang¹, Youming Song², Lulu Hou¹, Wendian Shi³

Affiliations

¹ School of Education, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200000, China.
² Department of Psychology, College of Education Science, Yan'an University, Yan'an 716000, China.
³ School of Education, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200000, China. Electronic address: swd_nx@163.com.

PMID: 37320929
DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2023.106005

Abstract

A successful deception involves making a decision, acting on it, and evaluating results. Here, we investigated deception in a non-clinical sample (n = 36) with varying autism traits using a coin-toss paradigm of active deception. The subjects were asked to react to the instructions by clicking one of the two boxes that could mislead their opponents, followed by feedback on their success or failure. During this reaction, their EEG activity was recorded, and the results suggested that people with high autistic traits exhibited longer reaction times and lower amplitude of P3 in the decision-making stage compared to individuals with low autistic traits. The feedback evaluation stage in the high autistic trait group elicited lower amplitude of FRN and P3. Overall, these results indicated that people with high autistic traits experienced difficulties in deceiving, which could be related to atypical neural mechanisms.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Autistic traits; Deception; Inhibitory control; Reward processing.

MeSH terms

Autism Spectrum Disorder*
Autistic Disorder*
Deception
Humans
Reaction Time