Viola Benedetti^1,2 (), Peter de Lissa¹, Fabio Giovannelli², Gioele Gavazzi², Maria Pia Viggiano², Roberto Caldara¹; ¹University of Fribourg, Switzerland, ²University of Florence, Italy

Race is a universal social construct that can be quickly extracted from facial features. How race information modulates face processing has been extensively investigated in face identification and categorization, resulting in thousands of studies. However, no studies have directly investigated the interaction of face race with the neural inhibitory executive function yet. This is surprising given that response inhibition is key for appropriate and effective human multicultural and multiracial social interactions. To address this issue, we tested Western-Caucasian observers using a face categorization by race task with a Go/No-Go paradigm, while recording high-density electrophysiological signals. Participants had to quickly categorize one race (Go stimulus), while inhibiting responses to the other race (No-Go stimulus), with executive inhibitory demands directly tapping into face race categorization. In one condition, Western-Caucasian (WC) faces (i.e., same-race) served as Go stimuli and East Asian (EA) faces (i.e., other-race) were the No-Go stimuli that had to inhibit. In the other condition, the Go race was inverted and presentation order was balanced across observers, with all face images normalized for spatial frequency and contrast. The rate-correct score (RCS) revealed a higher frequency of accurate responses specifically when EA faces were presented as No-Go stimuli, which highlights a stark behavioral other-race inhibition advantage. Using a mass-Bayesian EEG analysis, we then revealed an early race effect with higher occipital P1 amplitude for EA. Only in the inhibitory condition (No-Go) we observed a post-perceptual effect: a late central No-Go P3 for EA faces. Interestingly, this component is positively correlated with behavioral performance, reflecting a psychophysiological correlate for the other-race inhibition advantage. Altogether, our data show a crucial neural interplay between face race and executive inhibition, providing a novel functional signature on its temporal dynamics. These findings reveal how face race shapes our human interaction and the subsequent social categorization processes.

Acknowledgements: This work was supported with funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation awarded to RC (100019_189018)