A modified version of the Hariri emotional face-processing task [44–46] was used where in each 5-second trial subjects were presented with a target face and two probe faces, with instructions to match the probe and emotional expression of the target by pressing a button. Each block had 6 consecutive trials where faces were angry, fearful, or happy in which the three separate emotional face-matching blocks were given for each emotion and different people were pictured for each emotion. The 5-second sensorimotor control tasks used vertical or horizontal ovals or circles with instructions to match the shape of the probe to the target. Each block of faces and of the control task was presented three times in a pseudo-randomized order. The task began with an 8-second fixation period and was comprised of interspersed 12-second fixation periods between each face or sensorimotor control task. For each of the 18 trials (3 blocks of 6 trials), response accuracy and reaction times were obtained, and the entire task lasted 512 seconds.
