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Altered Processing of Social Emotions in Individuals With Autistic Traits
Di Yang1,2,3, Hengheng Tao1,2, Hongxin Ge1,2
1Key Laboratory of Applied Psychology, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, China.
Frontiers in Psychology
|March 21, 2022
Summary
Individuals with autistic traits show different emotional responses to negative social cues. This study found altered processing of social-negative emotions in those with higher autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) scores.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Autism Research
Background:
- Social impairment is a key characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
- Understanding emotional perception in individuals with autistic traits is crucial for developing targeted interventions.
- Autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) is a measure used to assess autistic traits in individuals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if individuals with higher autistic traits exhibit altered perceptions of social emotions.
- To compare behavioral and electrophysiological responses to social and non-social emotional stimuli between high-AQ and low-AQ groups.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted comparing high-AQ and low-AQ participants.
- Experiment 1 involved viewing social-emotional and non-social emotional pictures.
- Experiment 2 involved listening to social-emotional and non-social emotional audio recordings.
- Behavioral responses and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded.
Main Results:
- The high-AQ group exhibited more negative emotional reactions to social-negative stimuli compared to the low-AQ group.
- Smaller amplitudes of late ERP components (late positive potential and late negative component) were observed in the high-AQ group for social-negative stimuli.
- These ERP component amplitudes in the high-AQ group correlated with their AQ scores.
Conclusions:
- Individuals with autistic traits demonstrate altered emotional processing, particularly for social-negative emotions.
- These findings highlight differences in how autistic traits influence the perception and neural processing of social emotional information.
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