Integration of Facial Expression and Gaze Direction in Individuals with a High Level of Autistic Traits Marotta, Andrea Aranda Martín, María Belén De Cono, Marco Ballesteros Duperon, María Ángeles Lupiáñez Castillo, Juan Eye-gaze Emotional expression Autistic traits Congruency effect This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness, through research project PID2020-114790GB-I00 to J.L., and by the Andalusian Council and European Regional Development Fund, through research project B-SEJ-572-UGR20 to A.M. B.A.-M. was supported by a predoctoral fellowship from the FPU program from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (FPU16/07124). Background.We investigated whether individuals with high levels of autistic traits integrate relevant communicative signals, such as facial expression, when decoding eye-gaze direction. Methods. Students with high vs. low scores on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) performed a task in which they responded to the eye directions of faces, presented on the left or the right side of a screen, portraying different emotional expressions. Results. In both groups, the identification of gaze direction was faster when the eyes were directed towards the center of the scene. However, in the low AQ group, this effect was larger for happy faces than for neutral faces or faces showing other emotional expressions, whereas participants from high AQ group were not affected by emotional expressions. Conclusions. These results suggest that individuals with more autistic traits may not integrate multiple communicative signals based on their emotional value. 2022-04-05T08:16:35Z 2022-04-05T08:16:35Z 2022-02-27 journal article Marotta, A... [et al.]. Integration of Facial Expression and Gaze Direction in Individuals with a High Level of Autistic Traits. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 2798. [https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19052798] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/74127 10.3390/ijerph19052798 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ open access Atribución 3.0 España MDPI