Facial expression processing is modulated by face gender and anxiety levels in developing youth

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Social Cognition

Background:

• Facial expressions are crucial for social interaction, but how face gender influences emotional processing in developing brains is unclear.
• Previous research has primarily focused on emotion recognition, leaving the interplay of gender, emotion, and age in face processing underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate age-related changes in neural oscillatory dynamics during the processing of faces varying in gender and emotion in typically developing youth.
• To examine how face gender and emotional expression interact to affect neural responses and behavior across development.
• To explore the influence of anxiety on these developmental trajectories of face perception.

Main Methods:

• Utilized magnetoencephalography (MEG) to record neural oscillatory activity in 186 typically developing youths performing a gender identification task on emotional faces.
• Employed whole-brain, voxel-wise analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) to assess interactions between age, face gender, and expression.
• Measured behavioral reaction times and analyzed alpha/beta and gamma oscillatory responses.

Main Results:

• Behavioral data showed age-dependent reaction times, with faster responses to angry male faces and slower responses to angry female faces.
• Alpha/beta oscillations differed by face gender, showing heightened responses to expectancy-violating combinations (e.g., angry female, happy male faces).
• Increased alpha/beta activity in the pre-supplementary motor area correlated with slower responses to angry male faces, suggesting enhanced inhibitory control. Gamma oscillations in social-cognitive regions supported complex expression processing. Anxiety modulated early alpha/beta responses, indicating attentional avoidance of angry male faces in higher-anxiety youth.

Conclusions:

• Distinct roles for alpha/beta and gamma oscillations in the developmental maturation of social-cognitive face processing were identified.
• Findings suggest that anxiety can alter typical face perception development, particularly in response to threatening social cues.
• The study provides novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying the integrated processing of facial gender and emotion across development.