Spectrum | Autism Research News

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OPINION

Social games
BY EMILY SINGER

25 MAY 2012

You may think of video games as a waste of time — and in many cases, you may be right. But some
researchers are using multiplayer games to measure how social and other factors influence an
individual’s decision-making process. The games, these researchers say, could help assess social
deficits in people with autism.

Some studies have already yielded insights into autism, as outlined in a review published 12 May
in Biological Psychiatry.

In a 2010 study, participants played a game in which they could either hunt rabbits alone for a few
points or cooperate to hunt stags for more points. Cooperation requires the player to infer the other
player’s strategy: To hunt the stag, player A must believe that player B believes player A will
cooperate.

People with autism tend to use strategies with fewer inferences, the study found. The results
provide one of the first demonstrations that computational models can identify social impairments,
the researchers say.

In another study, published last year, participants played a game in which they decided how much
money to donate to a charity. People with autism donated the same amount, regardless of
whether anyone was watching, whereas controls donated more when they knew they were being
observed.

Some teams are using brain imaging during gaming to try to develop biomarkers for autism. In one
example, researchers analyzed a brain area known as the cingulate cortex while participants
played a trust game, in which players invest money or other virtual goods with another player with
the hopes of getting a return on the investment.

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 Spectrum | Autism Research News

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Brain activity in people with autism differed from controls for only the part of the game in which the
player decides how much to invest, called the ‘me’ or ‘self’ response.

Moreover, the level of activity in the cingulate cortex correlated with the severity of social deficits in
people with autism. Taken together, the studies highlight how multiplayer games can be used to
identify patterns of social behavior that characterize autism and other disorders.

Researchers are beginning to use brain imaging in conjunction with potential treatments. Oxytocin,
for example, a hormone that has been shown to increase trust, also improves emotion
recognition when given to people with autism. Research presented last week at the International
Meeting for Autism Research in Toronto showed that oxytocin treatment increases activity in
parts of the brain linked to the processing of social information.

Perhaps these two approaches will soon come together, allowing researchers to study how
oxytocin affects both brain activity and behavior while children are playing these games.

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