Page 191 - Demo

Embodied Facial Emotion Processing in Autism and Social Anxiety1896expressions have rarely been the focus of previous research on facial mimicry in autism, similar observations of less relaxation have been made, yet not statistically tested (Rozga et al., 2013). In contrast to some existing findings on altered mimicry patterns in autism (Mathersul et al., 2013; Rozga et (Dimberg, 1997; Peter-Ruf et al., 2017; Vrana & Gross, 2004)al., 2017; Vrana & Gross, 2004), we did not observe group differences in zygomaticus activity to happy expressions as well as in corrugator activity to negative expressions. Importantly, this analysis was not the main focus of the study and we only looked at averaged data. Previous research suggests that differences between individuals on the autism spectrum and neurotypical controls might only become apparent in the latency, differentiation, or precision of mimicry responses (Drimalla et al., 2021; Oberman et al., 2009; Weiss et al., 2019). Furthermore, alterations in mimicry associated with social anxiety might be amplified in a real social context, in which the signaling function of facial expressions is met and social anxiety symptoms manifest (Dijk, Fischer, et al., 2018). Examining changes in skin conductance as an index of sympathetic activation, we did not observe any group differences in the magnitude of the response to all facial expression categories, replicating some existing findings in autism research (Mathersul et al., 2013) and social anxiety research (Dimberg & Thunberg, 2007; Merckelbach et al., 1989). The two clinical groups did, however, significantly differ from the control group in the self-reported interoception measures: both individuals on the autism spectrum and individuals with social anxiety described an increased interoceptive attention combined with a reduced interoceptive accuracy. An increased attention to bodily signals in individuals with social anxiety has mainly been reported in social situations and linked to a fear of displaying heightened arousal, such as blushing (Nikoli%u0107 et al., 2015). Individuals on the autism spectrum, in contrast, have been found to report a stronger sensation of distinct body signals (Garfinkel et al., 2016), in line with a more general sensory hypersensitivity (Tavassoli et al., 2014), which might be bidirectionally linked to an increased interoceptive attention. Extending reports of reduced objectively-measured, cardiac interoceptive accuracy in individuals on the autism spectrum (Failla et al., 2020; Garfinkel et al., 2016; Mul et al., 2018), we also observed a lower self-reported interoceptive accuracy in autism. This goes along with the idea of highly inflexible precise prediction errors in autism (Van de Cruys et al., 2017), with various distinct body sensations as low level signals constantly being overrepresented. When aiming to retrieve specific information from their bodies, individuals on the autism spectrum might not be able to