Differential Fairness Decisions and Brain Responses After Expressed Emotions of Others in Boys with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The final sample was small, with 19 boys in each group, which may have missed brain differences and makes the findings less stable. All participants were boys aged 15 to 19, so the results do not show what happens in girls, younger children or adults. Only boys who first chose the unfair 6-4 token split continued to the scanned task, so the findings apply to a selected group that had already made an unfair offer. The emotional reactions were written and preprogrammed, not real face-to-face feedback, so the task may not capture everyday social interaction. The brain findings are exploratory: no group difference appeared for the broad happiness versus negative emotions contrast, and the brain regions the authors expected to find were not different. Nine ASD boys were taking medication and some had comorbid disorders, although checks excluding those participants did not change the group differences. The study did not test a therapy, so it cannot tell therapists whether a treatment should be changed.

Funding was provided by Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek; no commercial funding or author conflicts are stated.

Do not conclude that boys with ASD cannot use emotional feedback or that they are generally less fair. They did change choices after anger, disappointment and happiness, and the main group difference was less unfairness after happiness. The brain results are exploratory in 19 boys per group and do not show a treatment effect.