Neural tracking of social navigation in autism spectrum disorder.

Background: As we navigate changing social landscapes, maintaining maps of interpersonal dynamics can help guide our choices. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with social challenges that may affect the accumulation or application of social information. However, little is known about social cognitive mapping in autistic adults.

Methods: Herein, we investigate differences in social navigation amongst 122 adults with ASD, typical development (TD), and misophonia (included as a clinical comparison group) using a social interaction task during fMRI.

Results: Compared to other groups, adults with ASD behaved socially distant from task characters. Nevertheless, the groups displayed comparable neural tracking of social distances in regions previously identified in non-clinical samples (1-3), including the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), as well as the parahippocampal place area (PPA), where tracking uniquely related to cross-diagnostic social avoidance symptoms. In contrast, the ASD group displayed distinctive hypoactivity in the temporal pole (TP) during social decisions, associated with smaller real-world social networks and reduced insight into their external symptoms. Additionally, while the TD and misophonia groups displayed functional decoupling between the TP and PCC during social decisions, this was not detected in ASD.

Conclusions: Adults with ASD displayed distinct behaviors and neural activity during deliberation in social interactions. Yet, brain systems supporting social mapping appear preserved across groups, consistent with prior findings, now extended to a clinically diverse sample. These results highlight both shared and ASD-specific neural mechanisms of social navigation, offering insight into potential neural differences in how social evidence guides choices in ASD.