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Chapter 6168AbstractAlterations in the perception of facial emotional expression and their physiological resonance, as well as in accurately sensing bodily states (i.e., interoception) have been reported in both autism and social anxiety. In the current study, we aimed to examine the association between physiological responses, their sensation, and facial emotion perception in individuals on the autism spectrum (N = 40), individuals with social anxiety (N = 27) and neurotypical controls (N = 40). Participants first viewed videos of spontaneous facial expressions (anger, happiness, sadness, fear and neutral) while facial muscle responses (corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major), indicating facial mimicry, and skin conductance, indicating emotional arousal, were recorded. In a separate task, the same expressions were judged regarding their emotion category, the confidence in the accuracy of this judgment, and the intensity of the observed emotional experience. Compared to controls, individuals with social anxiety showed a stronger link between physiological arousal and the perceived intensity of sadness. Individuals on the autism spectrum showed a relatively weaker link between the mimicry of anger and the intensity at which this expression was perceived. Differences in selfreported interoceptive accuracy also played a role in the latter link, suggesting alterations in integrating embodied emotions in autism.Based on: Folz, J., Niki%u0107, K., Nikoli%u0107, M., Janowicz, V., Koelkebeck, K., & Kret, M. E. (2024). The Role of the Body in Altered Facial Emotion Perception in Autism and Social Anxiety. Manuscript submitted for publication to Behaviour Research and TherapyData availability statement:The datasets and materials generated and/or analysed during the current study will be made available on Dataverse NL upon publication: https://doi.org/10.34894/LUZANNSupplementary material: