Brief report: evidence for normative resting-state physiology in autism.

The team used modern eye-tracking to measure resting pupil size in autistic and non-autistic children.

They wanted to test the old idea that autistic kids are always in a state of high alert, called hyper-arousal.

Pupil size at rest was the same in both groups.

The data do not support the claim that autism equals chronic over-arousal.

Fink et al. (2014) also used eye-tracking and found no emotion-recognition deficit once verbal skill was matched, showing the same null pattern.

Smith et al. (2021) replicated the null theme: boys with ASD recognized and mimicked faces just like peers.

Luckhardt et al. (2017) seems to disagree; they saw atypical brain responses during emotion tasks. The clash fades when you notice they measured EEG during a task, while McGonigle et al. (2014) watched resting pupils—different state, different tool.

Poljac et al. (2013) also looks opposite, linking more autistic traits to worse face reading in adults. The gap closes when you see they studied neurotypical adults with mild traits, not diagnosed children.

Stop assuming every autistic client walks around over-aroused. Normal resting physiology means you can save energy for teaching skills instead of trying to fix a problem that is not there. Use brief baseline checks with your own eye-tracker or even a simple calm-seated observation before you label arousal as the culprit.