Neural mechanisms of encoding social and non-social context information in autism spectrum disorder

► The influence of context on neural mechanisms of object encoding was studied in ASD. ► ASD and controls encoded objects presented with a social or non-social context. ► Abnormal activation in ASD was predominantly observed in the social context condition. ► ASD subjects showed atypical fronto-parietal activation in the social context condition. ► Socioemotional impairment in ASD extends into domains beyond social cognition.