K. NIXIMA ET AL.
the spectrum of emotional processing in high or moderate autis-
tic traits, and might not adequately capture the variability in the
normal range including low autistic traits. To apply the AQ for
comparison with high autistic traits in normal individuals,
moderate autistic traits should be more remarked than low au-
tistic traits, from the behavioral/physiological aspect of emo-
tional processing. Consequently, investigations of the useful-
ness of the AQ for quantifying autistic traits in non-clinical
individuals, especially those with low autistic-like traits, must
continue.
Conclusion
Our results suggest that the high-AQ group have different
patterns (longer reaction times and lower LPPs) of the emo-
tional processing underpinning behavioral and physiological
responses compared to the moderate-AQ group, which affirms
the autistic-like trait continuity underlying the AQ as well as
the results of previous studies. This study has also shown that,
similar to the high-AQ group, the low-AQ group shows a com-
parable pattern of emotion recognition, suggesting that the
spectrum of emotion recognition in autism would show a
non-linear relationship with AQ scores. The results in our study
possibly mean that AQ could not be considered as a simple
index for emotional processing and needs to be further investi-
gated in the future.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Okanoya Emotional Infor-
mation Project of the Japan Science and Technology Agency
(JST-ERATO).
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