Page 31 - Demo

1General introduction29the posed facial expressions used in most previous research, I use standardized videos of spontaneous facial emotional expressions as stimuli, increasing the ecological validity of computer-based facial emotion recognition paradigms. Chapter 5 examines a potential mechanism in altered integration of physiological information in emotion processing, namely interoception. Difficulties in interoception are broadly described in the literature on autism, but their role in interpreting others%u2019 emotional expressions is not well understood yet. In this chapter, I aim to quantify the degree to which different measures of interoception can explain altered perception of specific facial emotional expressions with higher autistic trait levels in the general population. In order to increase the explanatory power of my results, I replicate the initial online study in the lab, using the same task, and I add objective measures of facial muscle responses to observed expressions (i.e., mimicry) and of interoceptive accuracy. In the previous chapters of this dissertation (apart from Chapter 2), I thoroughly examine alterations in facial emotion processing at different processing stages and at different levels of description in relation to autistic and social anxiety trait levels in the general population. Chapter 6 allows to test the thereupon based predictions in a clinical sample, that is, in individuals with a diagnosis of either Autism Spectrum Disorder or Social Anxiety Disorder. I specifically focus on the link between the physiological resonance of facial expressions, indexed by facial muscle activations and skin conductance, and facial emotion perception (recognition, confidence in recognition and perceived intensity), as well as the role of interoception therewithin. In order to be able to infer both the presence as well as the absence of differences in the two groups compared to the control group, I conduct Bayesian analyses next to Frequentist analyses.Together, the five chapters present novel insights in the putative relevance of the spontaneous embodiment of others%u2019 emotions, including the sensation and integration of this physiological resonance, in alterations in facial emotion processing in autism and social anxiety (trait levels).