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

Facial expressions are essential to social interactions, enabling individuals to infer emotional states and intentions of others. Although emotional face processing has been widely studied, the impact of face-gender on expression processing in children and adolescents remains underexplored. The current study quantified age-related changes in the neural oscillatory dynamics serving the processing of faces that vary in gender (female, male) and emotion (angry, happy, neutral) in 186 typically developing youths. Participants completed a gender identification task while viewing emotional faces during magnetoencephalographic imaging. Whole-brain, voxel-wise ANCOVAs were conducted to assess age × face-gender × expression interactions. Behaviorally, reaction times showed age-dependent differences for angry and neutral expressions, with the fastest responses to angry male faces and the slowest to angry female faces. Alpha/beta oscillatory responses differed by face gender in angry and happy conditions, with greater responses to expectancy-violating gender-emotion associations (angry female and happy male faces). Notably, age-related alpha/beta increases within the pre-supplementary motor area were linked to slower behavioral responses to angry male faces, suggesting enhanced inhibitory control over potentially threatening cues. In parallel, changes in gamma oscillations within social-cognitive hubs like the superior temporal gyrus, temporoparietal junction, and supramarginal gyrus supported integrative processing of complex or expectancy-violating expressions. Early alpha/beta responses were further modulated by self-reported anxiety, with higher-anxiety youth showing attentional avoidance to angry male faces. These findings demonstrate distinct functional roles of alpha/beta and gamma oscillations in the developmental tuning of social-cognitive processing and point to how anxiety may alter normative trajectories of face perception.