Psychophysiological Markers of the Broader Autism Phenotype in Emotion Recognition

This paper analyzes eye-gaze dynamics in individuals with autistic traits during an emotion recognition task using partial facial stimuli. A distinct emotion recognition strategy was identified in individuals with elevated autistic traits. Specifically, the target group demonstrated superior efficiency in recognizing neutral and negative emotions compared to the control group, characterized by a smaller scanning area, shorter recognition latency, and higher accuracy. The findings demonstrate that eye-tracking methodology is effective not only for clinical autism diagnostics but also for identifying the broader autism phenotype (BAP). These results suggest that the broader autism phenotype is not characterized by deficits in emotion recognition; rather, it reflects a qualitatively alternative strategy of social cognition.