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. 2016 Nov 8:7:45.
doi: 10.1186/s13229-016-0107-7. eCollection 2016.

Mimetic desire in autism spectrum disorder

Baudouin Forgeot d'Arc  1 , Fabien Vinckier  2 , Maël Lebreton  3 , Isabelle Soulières  4 , Laurent Mottron  5 , Mathias Pessiglione  3
Affiliations

Mimetic desire in autism spectrum disorder

Baudouin Forgeot d'Arc et al. Mol Autism. .

Abstract

Mimetic desire (MD), the spontaneous propensity to pursue goals that others pursue, is a case of social influence that is believed to shape preferences. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is defined by both atypical interests and altered social interaction. We investigated whether MD is lower in adults with ASD compared to typically developed adults and whether MD correlates with social anhedonia and social judgment, two aspects of atypical social functioning in autism. Contrary to our hypotheses, MD was similarly present in both ASD and control groups. Anhedonia and social judgment differed between the ASD and control groups but did not correlate with MD. These results extend previous findings by suggesting that basic mechanisms of social influence are preserved in autism. The finding of intact MD in ASD stands against the intuitive idea that atypical interests stem from reduced social influence and indirectly favors the possibility that special interests might be selected for their intrinsic properties.

Keywords: Autism; Brain valuation system; Mimetic desire; Mirror neuron system; Restricted interests; Social cognition; Social influence; Social motivation.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a The desirability-rating task. Successive screens displayed in one trial are shown from left to right with durations in milliseconds. Participants were instructed to rate “how much they would like to get/have the object.” Every trial of the task started with a fixation cross followed by the video. The desirability scale then appeared on the screen below the picture of the object to be rated (without human agent). The object was taken as the goal of an action in the G condition but not in the NG condition. Colors were counterbalanced at the group level. b The recognition task. Subjects had to select the “old” object, which meant the object that had been featured in the videos (either G or NG) shown during the rating task. Every choice contained one old and one “new” object. In the illustrated example, the correct answer would be green for the choice on the left and yellow for the choice on the right
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Comparison of MD in the ASD and control groups. Box plots show the minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile, and maximum of the MD effect (difference in desirability ratings between goal and non-goal objects) across individuals. MD was significantly positive in both groups, with no difference between groups
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