iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Thanks to generous funding from the Paul Foundation, the studentships will provide a stipend and fees for three years at the UK home fees rate. For information about potential OCEMR DPhil projects and information about submitting your expression of interest, go to: lnkd.in/e36645GY 🧵2/2

lnkd.in

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

📣 Come join us for a DPhil at Oxford 📣 The Oxford Centre for Emerging Minds are advertising PhDs for an Oct 2027 start 😀 This includes a project supervised by Jiedi Lei, Shelley McKeown, and I on "Valuing Difference: Developing Inclusive Peer Ecologies in Neurodiverse Primary Classrooms." 🧵1/2

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Postdoctoral Researcher – All About Me (adolescent focus): my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Research Assistant – All About Me: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

🚨We are recruiting for two exciting posts on the All About Me project, which will work with young people, families, and educators to develop a neurodiversity-affirming toolkit for exploring young people’s character strengths, abilities, and potential across different contexts. More details:

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Centre for Research in Autism and Education @craeioe.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Very excited to announce our CRAE Annual Lecture. Time to deliver: Lessons from the House of Lords Autism Act 2009 Committee Laura Crane on how we can build a future where autistic people’s rights, needs, and voices truly shape policy. 22nd June at 6pm www.eventbrite.co.uk... 1/2

eventbrite.co.uk

Time to deliver: Lessons from the House of Lords Autism Act 2009 Committee Tickets, Monday, Jun 22, 2026 from 5 pm to 6:30 pm UTC | Eventbrite

Eventbrite - UCL Centre for Research in Autism & Education CRAE presents Time to deliver: Lessons from the House of Lords Autism Act 2009 Committee - Monday, 22 June 2026 - Find event and ticket information.

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Really excited to share we’ve been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant ✨ This funding helps us take our co-developed autism screening tool from research into healthcare—improving access, equity & efficiency in diagnosis for children & adults. More soon! www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2026/un...

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Huge thank you to Prof. Jennifer Cook and Carmen Kraaijkamp for their help with this project✨ It was a big team effort!

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

✨Understanding these different routes to interpreting other people's emotions may help us design better, more tailored support to help both autistic and non-autistic people to read others' emotions (if that aligns with someone's personal goals)✨🧵14

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Take home ✨Autistic and non-autistic adults did not differ in how consistently or distinctly they experienced emotions, or in how well they understood and differentiated emotion meanings. Instead, they appeared to use different routes to recognise emotions (needs to be confirmed in future work)🧵13

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

For non-autistic people, having more distinct emotion definitions linked to more distinct emotional experiences which linked to higher emotion recognition For autistic people, having a more precise understanding of emotion words linked to higher emotion recognition🧵12

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

But autistic and non-autistic people did seem to differ in *how* - the way in which - they recognise emotions in others 🧵11

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Here’s what we found 👇 After controlling for alexithymia, autistic and non-autistic adults did not differ in: • how consistent or distinct their emotional experiences were • how well they understood emotion words • how much emotion meanings overlapped🧵10

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Participants completed tasks measuring how consistent (repeatable) and distinct their own emotions were, how well they understood and differentiated the meanings of emotion words, and how accurately they recognised emotions from facial movements 🧵9

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

In our study, we compared 58 autistic and 59 non-autistic adults, carefully matched on age, sex, and reasoning ability - and accounted for alexithymia 🧵8

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

This means we don't know whether differences in emotional experience and emotion understanding are linked to autism, alexithymia, or both🧵7

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

A key issue with past studies, however, is that they have not taken into account alexithymia - which involves difficulty identifying and describing one's own emotions, and is common in autistic people 🧵6

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

In related literature, research suggests autistic and non-autistic people might differ in the degree to which they distinguish between the meaning, and their experiences of, distinct emotions. These differences could lead to differences in interpreting other people's emotions🧵5

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

For example, if emotions like anger and sadness feel very similar inside, or are not clearly distinguished in our own conceptualisations, it may be harder to tell these emotions apart when observing other people... (See link for more info: doi.org/10.1038/s415...) 🧵4

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Recognising emotions in others isn’t just about reading facial/bodily cues. It may also depend on how clearly we understand and experience our own emotions, and how well we understand emotion concepts (like what “anger” or “frustration” and "irritation" mean)🧵3

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Some studies suggest that autistic people sometimes find it difficult to recognise other people’s emotions. However, it is not clear if this is truly the case, and if so, why 🧵2

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

We are currently investigating this idea specifically, so watch this space for updates👀🧵18/18

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Autistic and non-autistic people may express emotions in ways that are different but equally meaningful - almost like speaking different languages. So, what has sometimes been interpreted as difficulties for autistic people may reflect a two-way misunderstanding...🧵17

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

In sum, we found differences in the appearance of facial expressions, how these expressions unfold over time, and how smoothly they are formed. These mismatches may help to explain why autistic people struggle to recognise non-autistic expressions and vice versa...🧵16

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Alexithymia was linked to less clearly distinct angry and happy expressions, making them more likely to appear ambiguous... 🧵15

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Interestingly, we also found that the autistic participants produced more unique facial expressions – in other words, they showed more individualised or creative ways of expressing emotion... 🧵14

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

We also looked at differences in activation and jerk across time - check out the paper to see what we found 👀 doi.org/10.1002/aur.... 🧵13

A graph showing differences in activation across 44 facial features between autistic and non-autistic participants for cued happy expressions across time. In the graph, you can see that the autistic participants showed lower activation of many eye, eyebrow, mouth, and cheek features, and higher activation of some (other) mouth features, while holding the peak expression.

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

For sadness, the autistic participants produced a downturned expression by raising their upper lip more than their non-autistic peers... 🧵12

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

For happiness, the autistic participants showed a less exaggerated smile that also did not tend to reach the eyes and eyebrows, and... 🧵11

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

For anger, the autistic participants showed lower activation of the eyebrows, and more jerky mouth movements, suggesting they may rely less on the eyebrows and more on the mouth, than their non-autistic peers... 🧵10

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

We found that autistic and non-autistic adults produced different facial expressions, even when facial structure and alexithymia were taken into account.. 🧵9

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

To make sure we were only measuring facial movements, and not differences in facial structure, we mapped all expressions onto the same standard face before analysing the movements. We also controlled for alexithymia in our analyses... 🧵8

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

So, in this study, we asked autistic and non-autistic adults to produce angry, happy, and sad facial expressions in two ways - in synchrony with some sounds and while speaking - while we tracked their face (with high resolution) through motion capture... 🧵7

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Previous research had also not considered alexithymia - a sub-clinical condition linked to difficulties identifying and describing one's own emotions, which occurs in around half of autistic people. Alexithymia may also influence how emotions are expressed on the face 🧵6

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Another issue is that autistic and non-autistic people are thought to have different facial structures. This means that expressions might look different even if the actual facial movements are the same... 🧵5

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

One reason for this uncertainty is that many studies have relied on subjective ratings, rather than directly measuring how faces move, or have used methods with low sensitivity to differences across the whole face (e.g., fEMG) and over time... 🧵4

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

However, it remains unclear what specifically is different about these facial expressions. For example, are different parts of the face being activated? Is one group moving their face faster or in a more jerky way? Or do the expressions unfold differently over time?🧵3

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

In prior work, there have been suggestions that autistic and non-autistic people produce different facial expressions. This evidence mostly come from studies where non-autistic people rate autistic and non-autistic expressions in terms of quality, accuracy & appearance...🧵2

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Great news🚨Our article "Mismatching expressions: spatiotemporal and kinematic differences in autistic and non-autistic facial expressions" is published in Autism Research⭐ Thanks to Jennifer Cook, Sophie Sowden & Holly O'Donoghue. Check out the thread below for a summary doi.org/10.1002/aur.... 🧵1

doi.org

Mismatching Expressions: Spatiotemporal and Kinematic Differences in Autistic and Non‐Autistic Facial Expressions

Preliminary studies suggest there are differences in the facial expressions produced by autistic and non-autistic individuals. However, it is unclear what specifically is different, whether such diff...

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Centre for Research in Autism and Education @craeioe.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

We are delighted that @connortkeating.bsky.social's Demystifying Emotion-Processing: Autism & Alexithymia #CRAEwebinar is now available to watch on our YouTube Channel. youtu.be/OqbcUW6qbLw

Webinar image for Connor Keating's Demystifying Emotion-Processing: Autism & Alexithymia. Photo of Connor. UCL header. Dated 2nd Oct 2025

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alicia-rybicki.bsky.social @alicia-rybicki.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

🚨 PhD Opportunity! 🚨 Come investigate the mechanistic role of dopamine in emotion processing with Prof Jennifer Cook - @thechbh.bsky.social @unibirmingham.bsky.social MIBTP-funded PhD, using behavioural, computational and pharmacological approaches. Get in touch and please share!

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Thus, unconscious rather than conscious attitudes may be more influential in guiding prosocial behaviour. These could be addressed – promoting greater acceptance of autistic people and reducing internalised stigma – to foster supportive relationships between & within neurotypes.

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

For autistic participants, stronger implicit biases predicted lower motivation to put in effort for autistic peers. For non-autistic participants, implicit biases did not affect decisions, but predicted greater effort exerted for non-autistic compared to autistic peers.

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Implicit, but not explicit, biases held about autism played a role...

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

When looking at how much actual effort participants put in, non-autistic participants put in comparable effort for other autistic and non-autistic participants, whilst autistic participants put in more actual effort for their fellow autistic than non-autistic participants.

A bar chart showing that the non-autistic participants exerted more effort for themselves than for both other groups (with no differences between others of the same or others of a different neurotype). In contrast, the autistic participants exerted most effort for themselves, followed by autistic others, and then neurotypical others.

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

When looking at choices, we saw a robust self-bias, with both groups choosing to put in more effort for themselves than others, and no differences between same and different neurotype others.

A bar graph showing that both the autistic and non-autistic participants chose to exert effort more for themselves than for both other groups.

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Connor Keating @connortkeating.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

We asked autistic and non-autistic adults to squeeze a hand grip to earn credits for themselves, for others of the same neurotype, or for others of a different neurotype. They could choose to squeeze for credit or rest for no credit on every trial...

An image showing that participants completed trials where they could win a variable amount of credits for themselves, others of the same neurotype, or others of a different neurotype. Participants would choose whether or not to exert a given level of effort for the recipient, and then would have to put in that effort to win the reward.

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