Autism and Gambling

It was hypothesized that adult patients with autism would exhibit an abnormal risky decision making pattern on a gambling task in response to win or los rounds (Wu, White, Rees, and Burgess, 2018). A characteristic of autism is repetitiveness, and this was measured as well on the gambling task. The participants in this study had to make gambling decisions to possible gains or losses and were also asked if they choose the risky or secure option. The patients with autism did not differ from healthy control participants in their decision making, in fact, they chose the lose option more often than the win option. It was found that both groups made risky decisions in the same manner. However, the patients were more slower in responding than the healthy controls.

It is hypothesized that this finding might be associated with demands on cognitive flexibility or with psychomotor speed (Wu et al., 2018). In the win trials, all participants responded in the same manner concerning repetitiveness. It was further found that in the patient group with autism, making more consistent gambling decisions during the win rounds As compared to the healthy controls. It is suggested by the authors that in autism the highly consistent manner of responding in these rounds might be due to the win-stay lose shift strategy, however the patients with autism did respond in a more repetitive way as compared to healthy control participants in the equally expected gambling rounds. The consistent response of the group was not enhanced affecting risky decisions, rather in the absense of risky decisions (Wu et al., 2018). In addition, it is argued that this pattern of responding is an exploit decision preference contrary to an explore decision preference (Wu et al., 2018).