Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41571608›Full record

ArticlePsychophysiology2026

Pupil Dilation to Dynamic Audiovisual Emotional Speech Reflects Autistic-Trait Variation in Neurotypical Adults.

Marilyn Chege, Fakhri Shafai, Fan Yang, Julia Montenegro, Meara Stow, Tse Wing Winnie Ho, Arin E Abraham, Elizabeth Gateman, Ryan A Stevenson

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Psychophysiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Marilyn ChegeDepartment of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7582-7109
Fakhri ShafaiDepartment of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Fan YangDepartment of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3241-7527
Julia MontenegroSchool of Education, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Meara StowDepartment of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Tse Wing Winnie HoMedical Science, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Arin E AbrahamDepartment of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Elizabeth GatemanDepartment of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Ryan A StevensonDepartment of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

Funding

Canada First Research Excellence FundCIHR 487850Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada RGPIN-2017-04656Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada RGPIN-2024-06233Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada 435-2017-0936Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada 435-2024-1375
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Autistic individuals commonly exhibit difficulties with emotion recognition, difficulties that contribute to social issues in Autism. Both emotion recognition and social abilities are distributed along a spectrum in Autism and the general population. We explored how Autistic traits, including social abilities, relate to emotional processing measured via pupil dilation in a neurotypical population. We presented participants with dynamic, audiovisual stimuli of actors uttering a semantically neutral phrase. These utterances were expressed with either a neutral tone of voice and facial expression, or with an angry, fearful, disgusted, happy, sad, or surprised tone and expression. Each emotion was presented with high- and low-intensity depictions. Participants were asked to identify the emotion and rate its intensity. Participants' pupillary responses were recorded during viewing. Traits associated with Autism were measured through a battery of self-report scales. We then tested for associations between Autistic traits and pupillary response to emotional stimuli. Broadly speaking, individuals with higher Autistic traits exhibited smaller overall pupillary responses to emotional stimuli. More specifically, this relation was driven by socio-communicative traits (Social Motivation, Social Knowledge). Further, social traits were especially correlated with physiological responses to low-intensity emotional presentation. This reflects previous studies suggesting that Autistic individuals show more pronounced difficulties with emotion recognition when emotional expression is more subtle. Finally, social Autistic traits were related to physiological responses to anger, fear, surprise, sadness and to a lesser extent happiness, but not disgust.

Indexed as

Autism Spectrum DisorderAutistic DisorderEmotionsFacial RecognitionPupilSocial PerceptionSpeech PerceptionAdolescentAdultFacial ExpressionFemaleHumansMaleYoung Adultaffectiveautismemotionmultisensorypupillometry

Identifiers

PMID41571608
PMCPMC12827228

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.