Electrodermal reactivity to emotion processing in adults with autistic spectrum disorders.

Lancioni et al. (2009) showed emotional faces to adults with autism and to adults without autism.

While each person watched, the team measured tiny changes in palm sweat called skin conductance.

This sweat bump happens when the nervous system wakes up to emotion.

The autism group labeled the faces as well as the control group.

Yet their palms stayed calmer; the sweat response was clearly smaller.

In short, the body reaction was muted even though the words were right.

Lartseva et al. (2014) saw the same hidden gap with brain waves.

Their autism group named emotion words on time, but a late brain spike was missing.

Both studies show overt behavior can look fine while covert signals are off.

Yuan et al. (2022) seems to disagree: adults with autism rated emotional pictures almost the same as typical adults.

The clash fades when you see the tasks: Q used still photos and rating scales, not live faces and body measures.

Georgopoulos et al. (2022) also found only tiny accuracy drops, again using button presses instead of sweat.

The lesson: ask how you measure. Buttons can hide what palms reveal.

If you run social-skills sessions, do not trust correct answers alone.

Add a quick palm sensor or watch for tiny hand moisture during role-play.

A flat line may signal the client is not feeling the emotion, even when they name it right.

You can then teach internal cues before teaching social labels.