After acquisition, each data file was visually inspected to remove epochs with movement and signal discontinuities. Data reduction was implemented using custom scripts in Matlab (release 2007b, The Mathworks Inc., Natick, MA) and an artifact rejection algorithm rejected segments with large fast deviations in amplitude in any channel (e.g., DC shifts and spikes) that may have been missed by human inspection. As per convention, a blink rejection algorithm rejected any data segments in the resting EEG data where ocular activity exceeded +/- 75 microvolts in the vertical EOG channel. However, since state emotion EEG data consisted of only one minute per facial expression, blink removal was not performed because it would have resulted in too few trials for analysis. To demonstrate that control of EOG artifacts should not introduce differences between resting and state emotion EEG asymmetry, ICCs computed between blink-retained versus blink-rejected resting frontal EEG data for 40 randomly selected participants in the present sample were excellent (ranging from .91 to .99 for AVG and LM reference modes across the four frontal channel pairs). These results replicate research demonstrating
