Emotion, Gender and Gaze Discrimination Tasks do not Differentially Impact the Neural Processing of Angry or Happy...

Facial expression processing is a critical component of social cognition yet, whether it is influenced by task demands at the neural level remains controversial. Past ERP studies have found mixed results with classic statistical analyses, known to increase both Type I and Type II errors, which Mass Univariate statistics (MUS) control better. However, MUS open-access toolboxes can use different fundamental statistics, which may lead to inconsistent results. Here, we compared the output of two MUS toolboxes, LIMO and FMUT, on the same data recorded during the processing of angry and happy facial expressions investigated under three tasks in a within-subjects design. Both toolboxes revealed main effects of emotion during the N170 timing and main effects of task during later time points typically associated with the LPP component. Neither toolbox yielded an interaction between the two factors at the group level, nor at the individual level in LIMO, confirming that the neural processing of these two face expressions is largely independent from task demands. Behavioural data revealed main effects of task on reaction time and accuracy, but no influence of expression or an interaction between the two. Expression processing and task demands are discussed in the context of the consistencies and discrepancies between the two toolboxes and existing literature.