Fig. 3. Schematic representation of experimental procedure.

Each trial started with presentation of a white fixation cross in the middle of the screen for 1.5–2 s followed by 2-s presentation of one out of six facial emotional expressions hidden behind a mask. After stimulus presentation, participants had to indicate, within 5 s in a 2AFC task, the displayed emotion by choosing one response option among two alternatives (correct and incorrect response; for example, either disgusted [correct] or angry [incorrect] facial expression). The face image is presented for illustrative purposes only, and had not been used as experimental material in the present study.