Hi, Phil-
A couple quick questions here. Did you process this with afni_proc.py, and if so, could you please post the afni_proc.py command here (that will help us understand the subject-level processing choices).
I'm a little confused about what the group-level tests are. Could you unpack those a bit, preferably with the exact 3dttest++ commands you used? You referred to the images as 3dttest++ results, and then state that the images are for 'control' subjects only, so I don't understand what is actually being shown. Also, in glm.PNG and beta_series.PNG, it is difficult to interpret the outputs without knowing what the colorbar and colorbar range are, as well as the threshold. We also typically find it easier to start with either translucent thresholding (so we see more of what is happening throughout the brain) or with lightly or even non-thresholded data (for the same reason).
Having those details will help; my initial thought is that a second round of smoothing at this point would be undesirable. If we understand the commands leading up to this point, then maybe we will see something else happening to resolve.
--pt