Consistent with current models of embodied emotions, this study investigates whether the somatosensory system shows reduced sensitivity to facial emotional expressions in autistic compared to neurotypical individuals, and if these differences are independent from between-group differences in visual processing of facial stimuli. To investigate the dynamics of somatosensory activity over and above visual carryover effects, we recorded EEG activity from two groups of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Typically Developing (TD) humans (male and female), while they were performing a facial emotion discrimination task and a control gender task. To probe the state of the somatosensory system during face processing, in 50% of trials we evoked somatosensory activity by delivering task-irrelevant tactile taps on participants’ index finger, 105 ms after visual stimulus onset. Importantly, we isolated somatosensory from concurrent visual activity by subtracting visual responses from activity evoked by somatosensory and...