Difficulties regulating emotions have been coined as inherent to autism, possibly even presenting a core difficulty of autism. While several models of emotion regulation have been proposed in the past, in this targeted review article, we aim to map emotion regulation difficulties in autistic individuals within the framework of the extended process…

Gelotophobia (fear of being laughed at) is an under-researched phenomenon in autistic people, yet can have a significant impact on autistic people's quality of life. A narrative review was undertaken to explore if gelotophobia and being autistic are related and what is currently known in the academic literature regarding gelotophilia (joy of being…

Behavioral correlates to happiness (i.e., indices of happiness) have been used as means of measuring happiness in individuals with developmental disabilities. However, research has not yet evaluated the possibility that indices of happiness/unhappiness (IHUs) may signal the presence of a setting event that could affect other behaviors. The purpose…

Previous studies have reported that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have higher levels of loneliness than neurotypical (NTP) people, most likely because of their difficulties in social communication with their predominantly NTP peers. However, direct investigations on the causal influence of friendship on their feelings of loneliness is…

The use of emotion recognition technologies in the workplace is expanding. These technologies claim to provide insights into internal emotional states based on external cues like facial expressions. Despite interconnections between autism and the development of emotion recognition technologies as reported in prior research, little attention has…

Genetic testing is recommended as part of an autism assessment, and most parents support genetic testing for their minor children. However, the impact on parents of receiving a monogenetic/ copy number variant diagnosis for autism in their child is not well understood. To explore this, we surveyed and interviewed parents of children in the SPARK…

This study investigated how emotional valence of a perceived emotional state impacted performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task (RMET) in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) controls. Valence of items on the RMET, Adult (RMET-A) and Child (RMET-C) versions, was first classified in a survey of…

Autistic youth display difficulties in emotion recognition, yet little research has examined behavioral and neural indices of vocal emotion recognition (VER). The current study examines behavioral and event-related potential (N100, P200, Late Positive Potential [LPP]) indices of VER in autistic and non-autistic youth. Participants (N = 164)…

In an attempt to shed light on the social decision difficulties experienced by autistic adults, the current study examines the dynamics of experience-based social decisions. We developed an experiential task where participants' goal was to select the most kind and pleasant agent out of four, based on the valence (positivity/negativity) of the…

Background: The impact of having a disabled brother or sister on siblings' psychological well-being and sibling relationships has been the subject of several research studies. However, research which focuses on the relationship between siblings and their autistic brother or sister with an intellectual disability and complex care needs is rare. We…

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by reduced pain empathy--a process that is grounded in first-hand pain perception. Because autistic traits are continuously distributed in the general population, we hypothesized that first-hand pain sensitivity would mediate the link between autistic traits and pain empathy. After controlling for…

Background: According to family systems theories, the family is an inter-connected social unit, where dysfunction, disability or illness in one family member may affect the rest of the family. Research indicates that the presence of an individual with autism can influence the functionality of the various subsystems, including siblings. Objective…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in many functional areas requiring long-term interventions to promote autonomy. This study aims to map The Sensory Profile™ 2 (SP-2), one of the most widely used assessment tools in children with ASD, with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for…

Purpose: We investigate the extent to which automated audiovisual metrics extracted during an affect production task show statistically significant differences between a cohort of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing controls. Method: Forty children with ASD and 21 neurotypical controls interacted with a…

Emotion regulation (ER) difficulties and differences in autism are well documented in both research and clinical literature, negatively impacting well-being for autistic young people. Emotion dysregulation can significantly decrease access to opportunities to learn life skills and increase the risk of mental health problems in adulthood. This…