Social and perceptual decisions predict differences in face inversion neural correlates: Implications for development and face perception methods

Social attention, an important mechanism that orients people to social cues, is critical for the development of higher-ordered features of social cognition. Both endogenous (i.e. automatic and undirected) and exogenous (i.e. purposeful and directed) social attention is important for processing social features, yet there is limited work systematically addressing how different experimental manipulations modulate social attention. This study examined how endogenous and exogenous manipulations of a classic face inversion task influence ERP activity in adults (n = 71) and adolescent youth (n = 65). Results from Study 1 indicated a lack of task differences for P1 and N170 but a larger inversion effect for P3 when a social perceptual decision was required. Study 2 demonstrated developmental differences in the youth, such that youth and adults had opposite inversion effects for N170 and youth had no effect for the P3. These findings indicate that face perception neural markers are sensitive to exogenous decisions, with development still active in adolescence. This is important to consider when designing future studies, as task-based decisions may alter the neural responses to faces differentially by age.