The way of our errors: Theme and variations

Abstract

Negative feedback, either internal or external, is a fundamental guide to human learning and performance. The neural system that underlies the monitoring of performance and the adjustment of behavior has been subject to multiple neuroimaging investigations that uniformly implicate the anterior cingulate cortex and other prefrontal structures as crucial to these executive functions. The present article describes a series of experiments that employed event-related potentials to study a variety of processes associated with internal or external feedback. Three medial-frontal negativities (error-related negativity, correct-response negativity, feedback-related negativity) are highlighted, each of which plays an important role in the monitoring and dynamic adjustment of behavior. Extensions of basic research on these ERPs to questions relevant to clinical-science are also provided.

Anxiety disrupts the evaluative component of performance monitoring: An ERP study

“…The main ERP result showing a modulatory effect of trait anxiety on the FRN component is in accordance with previous studies (Gu, et al, 2010;Simons, 2010) and more generally, the reinforcement learning theory (Holroyd & Coles, 2002). This model proposes that that the FRN component reflects the perceived discrepancy between the expected and the actual outcome (i.e., prediction error), here based on the processing of an external evaluative feedback (as opposed to an internal motor representation for the ERN component).…”

“…The FRN is a negative component peaking at fronto-central electrodes roughly 250-300 ms after presentation of relevant feedback information. Usually, the FRN was found to be larger after negative feedback on task performance, e.g., the presentation of an evaluation signal indicating error commission or monetary loss, compared to positive feedback, e.g., the presentation of an evaluation signal indicating correct performance or monetary reward anxiety, which is usually related to depression (Beck et al 1988; Mendels et al, 1972) and punishment sensitivity (Bijttebier et al, 2009), but which is also mainly characterized by an extreme worry about the expectancy of possible failures in the future (Eisenberg et al, 1998;Mitte, 2007;Shepperd et al, 2005), the results of two studies converged and showed a larger FRN amplitude for low, compared to high anxious individuals (Gu et al, 2010;Simons, 2010). According to Yeung et al (2005), the FRN also reflects an evaluation process that is influenced by the motivational significance of ongoing actions.…”

“…Because the hypersensitivity to negative events and the tendency to worry about negative outcomes are hallmarks of several affective personality traits or disorders like anxiety and depression (Maner & Schmidt, 2006;Mineka et al, 2003;Wray & Stone, 2005), one may assume that performance monitoring may vary with these affective personality traits. Consistent with this hypothesis, several studies have reported an effect of anxiety or depression on the ERN (e.g., Aarts & Pourtois;2010;Holmes & Pizzagalli, 2008;Olvet & Hajcak, 2008). By contrast, the evidence supporting a systematic modulation of the FRN (and hence the processing of external evaluative feedback) as a function of negative affect is mixed.…”

Brain systems underlying the affective and social monitoring of actions: An integrative review

“…They found that the amplitude difference between the ERN for errors minus the CRN for correct responses in the go/no-go task was correlated with the magnitude of the evaluative priming effect in the secondary word discrimination task. This suggests that the ERN-CRN amplitude difference might actually reflect the differential affective values of incorrect versus correct actions, in line with evidence that the ERN is correlated to the significance of errors (see also Luu et al, 2000;Olvet and Hajcak, 2008;Simons, 2010). Another distinctive property of these priming effects was that high levels of negative affect and trait anxiety/apprehension were associated with weaker affective priming effects elicited by errors versus correct responses .…”

Evaluative priming reveals dissociable effects of cognitive versus physiological anxiety on action monitoring.

“…In this framework, action monitoring enables to swiftly evaluate the accuracy of actions and to correct or adjust behavior when actions happen to mismatch with goals or intentions (Simons, 2010). The monitoring of actions and more generally human behavior has been integrated in a framework of evaluative and executive control (Botvinick, Braver, Barch, Carter, & Cohen, 2001;Jones, Cho, Nystrom, Cohen, & Braver, 2002;Yeung, Botvinick, & Cohen, 2004).…”