The Broad autism phenotype (BAP) refers to a set of subclinical behavioural characteristics qualitatively similar to those presented in Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The BAP questionnaire (BAPQ) has been widely used to assess the BAP both in relatives of ASD people and within the general population. The current study presents the first Spanish version of the BAPQ (BAPQ-SP) and analyses its psychometric properties, including validity evidences based on the BAPQ scores relationship with other variables. Our results only support the use of the Aloof and Rigid sub-scales to assess this phenotype, whereas Pragmatic Language sub-scale seems to be the main source of misfit. This research represents a first step in the study of the BAP features in the Spanish population.

Schizotypy can be defined as a combination of traits qualitatively similar to those found in schizophrenia, but milder in their expression, that can be found in clinical and non-clinical populations. In this research, we explore, to our knowledge, for the first time, whether schizotypal personality traits may affect the acquisition of conditioned fear by social means only. Apart from being an essential capacity to ensure learning in safe environments, social fear learning shares important characteristics with direct fear acquisition, which also makes it a great candidate for developing successful extinction procedures. Undergraduate students (n = 72) performed a task of social fear learning. In this task, participants watched a video of a person that simulated to receive electric shocks (unconditioned stimulus; US) paired with a coloured square (conditioned stimulus plus; CS+), while another coloured square was never paired (conditioned stimulus minus; CS−) with the shock. After that, they were presented with a similar sequence of coloured screens. Their Skin Conductance Responses (SCRs) were registered during the whole process. Once they finished, they completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Our results revealed that participants with a low score in the Cognitive-Perceptual factor of the SPQ exhibited higher SCRs when they saw the US than when they saw the CS− (all ps < 0.01) during the learning phase. Nevertheless, those with higher scores did not present any difference in their SCRs toward both stimuli (all ps > 0.05), a pattern that has been similarly found in schizophrenia. During the final trials of the test phase, participants with the highest scores in the Disorganized factor were the only ones that maintained a higher SCR towards the CS+ than towards the CS− (p = 0.006), which could be associated with an impairment in their extinction processes.

Although, the operationalization of the autism spectrum disorder has been updated around two domains, the broad autism phenotype (BAP) one has not. Additionally, the items of the three common BAP measures, the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ), the Autism Quotient, and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), remain organized around a non-consensual number of factors. We explored whether the items of these measures matched with the two-domain operationalization through a parallel analysis, which has suggested two main components, and two expert judgments which have assessed item wording, relevance, and construct representativeness. A remaining pool of 48 BAP-relevant items suggested a possible under-representation of two subdomains. Despite the relevance of all the BAPQ items, only the SRS ones tapped in all subdomains.

AbstractSchizotypy is defined as a combination of traits qualitatively similar to those found in schizophrenia, though in a minor severity, that can be found in the nonclinical population. Some studies suggest that people with schizotypal traits have problems recognising emotional facial expressions. In this research, we further explore this issue and we investigate, for the first time, whether the differential outcomes procedure (DOP) may improve the recognition of emotional facial expressions. Participants in our study were students that completed the ESQUIZO-Q-A and were set in two groups, high schizotypy (HS) and low schizotypy (LS). Then, they performed a task in which they had to recognise the emotional facial expression of a set of faces. Participants of the HS group and the LS group did not differ in their performance. Importantly, all participants showed better recognition of emotional facial expressions when they were trained with differential outcomes. This novel finding might be relevant for clinical practice since the DOP is shown as a tool that may improve the recognition of emotional facial expressions.

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