# Altered processing of consecutive changeable emotional voices in individuals with autistic traits: behavioral and ERP studies

## TL;DR

People with autistic traits show different brain and behavioral responses to consecutive emotional voices, which may explain their social interaction challenges.

## Contribution

This study is the first to show altered processing of consecutive emotional voices in individuals with autistic traits using behavioral and ERP methods.

## Key findings

- High-AQ individuals showed higher arousal levels when judging the last emotional voice in a triplet.
- High-AQ individuals exhibited larger P2 amplitudes in response to the final emotional voice in the ERP study.
- No group differences were found in responses to the first emotional voice in either study.

## Abstract

Similar to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), individuals with autistic traits are expected to exhibit alterations in emotion recognition. However, many previous studies using single emotional stimuli did not observe these alterations in such individuals. Given that consecutive changeable emotional stimuli are more common in social interactions than single emotional stimuli, impaired mental processing of consecutive changeable emotions may be a key factor underlying the social interaction challenges faced by these individuals.

The present research aimed to investigate the behavioral and neural responses to consecutive changeable emotional voices in individuals with autistic traits through two studies (Study 1 and Study 2). Based on the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) scores, participants were categorized into two groups: the High-AQ and the Low-AQ groups. In Study 1, both groups were asked to judge a single emotional voice (positive, negative, or neutral; S1) presented in each trial in Task 1, or the last presented emotional voice (S3) in a triplet of stimuli (S1-S2-S3, trains of three consecutive changeable emotional voices) in Task 2. In Study 2, both groups were instructed to passively listen to the stimulus triplet (S1-S2-S3), and event-related potential (ERP) technology was used to investigate their neural responses to each stimulus.

No significant group difference was found in response to S1 voices in either Study 1 or Study 2. However, the High-AQ group elicited higher arousal levels (Study 1) and larger P2 amplitudes (Study 2) in response to S3 emotional voices (positive and negative) compared to the Low-AQ group.

These findings reveal that individuals with autistic traits may exhibit alterations in their processing of consecutive changeable emotions in the auditory modality.