For me it was the other way round: first had auto-continue unchecked, then checked. The impression was, that THIS helped, but Dr. Keri seems to continue after repeating 5 times (reproduced without any checking or unchecking). After that, she says something boring about my obligations, but the science points are assigned and the next main mission begins.
=> BUG SEVERITY: weak (but I am VERY interested, whether this is a bug or a mission twist, such as "the squerbals eat brains..." ;-) )