Figure 1.

Mean activation levels (parameter estimates) of the voxels lying in the left anterior insula [–36 33 3] defined by the independent mask (see ‘Materials and methods’ section for details about ROI analyses) during empathy-related conditions (Pain–No pain in other) are significantly correlated with individual differences in alexithymia as measured by the TAS in both autism spectrum condition (ASD) (red dots) and control (blue dots) participants. The line represents the linear best fit. All correlations are significant at the P < 0.05 level.