Network Dynamics Centered on the Right Middle Frontal Gyrus Modulate Implicit Facial Emotion Discrimination

Emotional discrimination provides as a critical perspective on how neural circuits dynamically resolve socio-emotional conflicts, offering insights that inform treatment strategies for autism, depression, and schizophrenia. The right middle frontal gyrus plays a central, though poorly defined, role in resolving implicit facial interference during emotion discrimination. Using stereoelectroencephalography recordings from 11 participants with pharmacologically resistant epilepsy performing a face-implicit emotion discrimination task, we identified dynamic spatiotemporal mechanisms underlying behavioural accuracy. Results indicated that the right middle frontal gyrus functions as a phase-dependent hub. During early emotional discrimination, increased amplitudes in this region during incorrect trials disrupted emotional discrimination. In later decision-making phases, a failure to reverse from positive to inhibitory connectivity between the right middle frontal gyrus and fronto–insulo–temporal nodes predicted misidentification. Notably, the reconfiguration strength of the right middle frontal gyrus correlated with successful resolution of face-implicit interference. This region exhibited dual-pathway control, modulating both local neural gain and global network polarity to guide emotional decisions. These findings identify the right middle frontal gyrus as a key arbitrator of implicit face–emotion integration, with its spatiotemporal dysregulation contribution to emotion recognition deficits in neuropsychiatric populations.