"mind reading"?

At first I thought that might be a bit of humour (some NT people thrive on using euphemisms and subtle body language and then expect everyone to 'get' what the heck they are on about). But I think it might be referring to this:

https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Simon-Baron-Cohen/Mind-Reading-Emotions-Library--The-Interactive-Guide-to-Emotions/11693298 

It looks like it might have been a new idea ten years ago or something....

Some years ago I was a research subject of Dr Rebecca Brewer. Took part in three or four studies focusing on alexithymia. She and her team used facial expressions images (from Radboud Face Database) in some of the sessions. I often found them difficult to distinguish. 

I remember that some sessions were quicker, some faces were shown sideways, upside-down, and so on. I did one session with EEG cables attached to my head. Weird though it sounds it was quite good fun and they paid for travel plus a bit of pocket money. Rebecca herself is very pleasant.

https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/persons/rebecca-brewer

The theory seems to be that seemingly some people only focus on certain parts of the face and miss some of the 'signal' so they (we) misread the emotion.

Personally, I am sceptical about the whole "emotion" thing and so I'm also dubious about a 'tool' which relies on a consensus about what 'emotions' look like, based on photos. 

Personally, I think emotions are either positive or negative, or neutral. (This is what is called 'vedana' in Pali, which Buddha taught more than two thousand years ago.) All the other 'shades' are those things mixed together. I think we can get by with the primary colours but NT people have a richer 'palette' of colours.

If you run away from a twig glimpsed on a jungle footpath, because you think it is a snake, you might feel foolish but your very quick (mis)reading of the situation maybe keeps you alive. That was the emotion of fear doing it's work. The person who hangs around while their logical mind kicks in, instead of obeying the crude 'run away' response, might end up with their foot amputated.

Emotions are short-cuts that activate the body before the brain can kick in.

Sorry to waffle ;-)

At first I thought that might be a bit of humour (some NT people thrive on using euphemisms and subtle body language and then expect everyone to 'get' what the heck they are on about). But I think it might be referring to this:

https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Simon-Baron-Cohen/Mind-Reading-Emotions-Library--The-Interactive-Guide-to-Emotions/11693298 

It looks like it might have been a new idea ten years ago or something....

Some years ago I was a research subject of Dr Rebecca Brewer. Took part in three or four studies focusing on alexithymia. She and her team used facial expressions images (from Radboud Face Database) in some of the sessions. I often found them difficult to distinguish. 

I remember that some sessions were quicker, some faces were shown sideways, upside-down, and so on. I did one session with EEG cables attached to my head. Weird though it sounds it was quite good fun and they paid for travel plus a bit of pocket money. Rebecca herself is very pleasant.

https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/persons/rebecca-brewer

The theory seems to be that seemingly some people only focus on certain parts of the face and miss some of the 'signal' so they (we) misread the emotion.

Personally, I am sceptical about the whole "emotion" thing and so I'm also dubious about a 'tool' which relies on a consensus about what 'emotions' look like, based on photos. 

Personally, I think emotions are either positive or negative, or neutral. (This is what is called 'vedana' in Pali, which Buddha taught more than two thousand years ago.) All the other 'shades' are those things mixed together. I think we can get by with the primary colours but NT people have a richer 'palette' of colours.

If you run away from a twig glimpsed on a jungle footpath, because you think it is a snake, you might feel foolish but your very quick (mis)reading of the situation maybe keeps you alive. That was the emotion of fear doing it's work. The person who hangs around while their logical mind kicks in, instead of obeying the crude 'run away' response, might end up with their foot amputated.

Emotions are short-cuts that activate the body before the brain can kick in.

Sorry to waffle ;-)