Error‐monitoring in response to social stimuli in individuals with higher‐functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

Error‐monitoring, or the ability to recognize one's mistakes and implement behavioral changes to prevent further mistakes, may be impaired in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Children and adolescents (ages 9–19) with ASD (n = 42) and typical development (n = 42) completed two face processing tasks that required discrimination of either the gender or affect of standardized face stimuli. Post‐error slowing and the difference in Error‐Related Negativity amplitude between correct and incorrect responses (ERN_diff) were used to index error‐monitoring ability. Overall, ERN_diff increased with age. On the Gender Task, individuals with ASD had a smaller ERN_diff than individuals with typical development; however, on the Affect Task, there were no significant diagnostic group differences on ERN_diff. Individuals with ASD may have ERN amplitudes similar to those observed in individuals with typical development in more social contexts compared to less social contexts due to greater consequences for errors, more effortful processing, and/or reduced processing efficiency in these contexts. Across all participants, more post‐error slowing on the Affect Task was associated with better social cognitive skills.