Error processing in high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

Studies report error-processing abnormalities in high-functioning individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) that may be influenced by intelligence and autism severity. Error processing can be measured using the error-related negativity (ERN) and post-error positivity (Pe) components of the event-related potential (ERP), along with behavioral indices such as post-error reaction time (RT) slowing. We used a modified Flanker task to test the hypothesis that high-functioning individuals with ASD would show decreased amplitude ERN in 24 individuals with ASD and 21 age- and IQ-matched typically-developing control participants. Behaviorally, individuals with ASD committed more errors than controls, but groups did not significantly differ on RTs, although there was a trend-level difference in post-error slowing. For ERPs, ERN amplitude was significantly attenuated in individuals with ASD relative to controls; groups did not differ in Pe amplitude. Amplitude of the ERN was not significantly correlated with measures of intelligence, anxiety, behavioral inhibition, or general autism severity.     

Performance monitoring during sleep inertia after a 1‐h daytime nap

Performance monitoring is an essential function involved in the correction of errors. Deterioration of this function may result in serious accidents. This function is reflected in two event‐related potential (ERP) components that occur after erroneous responses, specifically the error‐related negativity/error negativity (ERN/Ne) and error positivity (Pe). The ERN/Ne is thought to be associated with error detection, while the Pe is thought to reflect motivational significance or recognition of errors. Using these ERP components, some studies have shown that sleepiness resulting from extended wakefulness may cause a decline in error‐monitoring function. However, the effects of sleep inertia have not yet been explored. In this study, we examined the effects of sleep inertia immediately after a 1‐h daytime nap on error‐monitoring function as expressed through the ERN/Ne and Pe. Nine healthy young adults participated in two different experimental conditions (nap and rest). Participants performed the arrow‐orientation task before and immediately after a 1‐h nap or rest period. Immediately after the nap, participants reported an increased effort to perform the task and tended to estimate their performance as better, despite no objective difference in actual performance between the two conditions. ERN/Ne amplitude showed no difference between the conditions; however, the amplitude of the Pe was reduced following the nap. These results suggest that individuals can detect their own error responses, but the motivational significance ascribed to these errors might be diminished during the sleep inertia experienced after a 1‐h nap. This decline might lead to overestimation of their performance.     

To err is autonomic: error-related brain potentials, ANS activity, and post-error compensatory behavior

A two-component event-related brain potential consisting of an error-related negativity (ERN/Ne) and positivity (Pe) has been associated with response monitoring and error detection. Both the ERN and Pe have been source-localized to the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)--a frontal structure implicated in both cognitive and affective processing, as well as autonomic nervous system (ANS) modulation. The current study sought to examine the relationships among the ERN, the Pe, two autonomic measures, and behavior. Electroencephalogram (EEG), heart rate (HR), and skin conductance (SC) were recorded while subjects performed a two-choice reaction-time task. In addition to the characteristic ERN-Pe complex, errors were associated with larger SCRs and greater HR deceleration. The ERN correlated with the number of errors, but was unrelated to ANS activity and compensatory behavior. Pe, on the other hand, was correlated significantly with SCR, and both SCR and Pe were significantly correlated with post-error slowing.     

Error-related electrocortical responses are enhanced in children with obsessive-compulsive behaviors

The error-related negativity (ERN or Ne) and positivity (Pe) are event-related potential components elicited during simple discrimination tasks after an error response. The ERN and Pe have a fronto-central scalp distribution and may be an indirect measure of anterior cingulate (AC) activity as it relates to performance monitoring. Brain imaging studies suggest that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with exaggerated activity of the AC while electrophysiological studies have found an association between OCD and pronounced ERNs in adults. The present study explored the relation between obsessive-compulsive behaviors, the ERN, and the Pe in a sample of nonclinical 10-year-old children. It was found that more parent-reported obsessive-compulsive behaviors were associated with larger ERN and Pe components in the children. Results suggest unique contributions of the ERN and Pe in predicting obsessive-compulsive behaviors.     

The brain regulation mechanism of error monitoring in impulsive children with ADHD—An analysis of error related potentials

The objective of this study was to investigate the brain mechanism involved in the regulation of impulsivity in children with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) through error detection as well as error monitoring. The subjects in this study included 7–11-year-old impulsive ADHD children as well as normal children and adult controls. Error related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) were measured. ERN peak latency from the children groups was delayed significantly when compared with the adult group; however, no significant difference in ERN amplitude was found among the three groups. Impulsive ADHD children had the earliest peak latency of Pe. In addition, the average Pe amplitude in impulsive children was significantly smaller than in adults (Cz and Pz), and smaller than in normal children (Pz). Late conscious cognitive processing of error is significantly weaker in impulsive ADHD children, suggesting a serious deficit of late error monitoring, rather than error detection.     

Error-Related Electrocortical Responses Are Enhanced in Children With Obsessive–Compulsive Behaviors

The error-related negativity (ERN or Ne) and positivity (Pe) are event-related potential components elicited during simple discrimination tasks after an error response. The ERN and Pe have a fronto-central scalp distribution and may be an indirect measure of anterior cingulate (AC) activity as it relates to performance monitoring. Brain imaging studies suggest that obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with exaggerated activity of the AC while electrophysiological studies have found an association between OCD and pronounced ERNs in adults. The present study explored the relation between obsessive–compulsive behaviors, the ERN, and the Pe in a sample of nonclinical 10-year-old children. It was found that more parent-reported obsessive–compulsive behaviors were associated with larger ERN and Pe components in the children. Results suggest unique contributions of the ERN and Pe in predicting obsessive–compulsive behaviors.     

Autonomic and electrophysiological correlates of emotional intensity in older and younger adults

Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is involved in the modulation of autonomic activity, emotional responsivity, and the monitoring of goal-directed behavior. However, these functions are rarely studied together to determine how they relate or whether their pattern of relation changes with age. We recorded respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of autonomic activity, error-related event related potentials (ERN/Pe), generated in ACC, and the self-reported intensity of 5 basic emotions in older and younger adults. Emotional intensity did not differ with age. The ERN/Pe and RSA were reduced with age and related specifically to sadness intensity for both groups. When examined together, RSA accounted for the relation between ERN/Pe and sadness. This is consistent with a model of medial prefrontal function in which autonomic processes mediate the relation between cognitive control and affective regulation, a pattern that also did not differ with age.     

Neurophysiological responses to gun-shooting errors

The present study investigated the neural responses to errors in a shooting game – and how these neural responses may relate to behavioral performance – by examining the ERP components related to error detection (error-related negativity; ERN) and error awareness (error-related positivity; Pe). The participants completed a Shooter go/no-go task, which required them to shoot at armed targets using a gaming gun, and avoid shooting innocent non-targets. The amplitude of the ERN and Pe was greater for shooting errors than correct shooting responses. The ERN and Pe amplitudes elicited by incorrect shooting appeared to have good internal reliability. The ERN and Pe amplitudes elicited by shooting behaviors also predicted better behavioral sensitivity towards shoot/don't-shoot stimuli. These results suggest that it is possible to obtain online brain response measures to shooting responses and that neural responses to shooting are predictive of behavioral responses.     

On the number of trials necessary for stabilization of error‐related brain activity across the life span

The minimum number of trials necessary to accurately characterize the error‐related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe) across the life span was investigated using samples of preadolescent children, college‐age young adults, and older adults. Event‐related potentials and task performance were subsequently measured during a modified flanker task. Response‐locked averages were created using sequentially increasing errors of commission in blocks of two. Findings indicated that across all age cohorts ERN and Pe were not significantly different relative to the within‐participants grand average after six trials. Further, results indicated that the ERN and Pe exhibited excellent internal reliability in preadolescent children and young adults after six trials, but older adults required eight trials to reach similar reliability. These data indicate that the ERN and Pe may be accurately quantified with as few as six to eight commission error trials across the life span.     

Electrocortical measures of performance monitoring from go/no-go and flanker tasks: Differential relations with trait dimensions of the triarchic model of psychopathy

This study examined associations of performance-monitoring event-related potentials (ERPs) from go/no-go and flanker tasks with one another, and with psychopathy-related traits of disinhibition, meanness, and boldness. A task-dependent relationship was evident between the error-related negativity (ERN) and trait disinhibition, with high-disinhibited participants showing reduced no-go ERN but not flanker ERN. Disinhibition was also inversely related to variants of the P3 and the error positivity (Pe) from these two tasks. A factor analysis of the ERPs revealed two distinct factors, one reflecting shared variance among the P3 and Pe measures from the two tasks, and the other covariance among the N2 and ERN measures. Scores on the P3/Pe factor, but not the N2/ERN factor, were inversely related to disinhibition, and accounted for associations of this trait with variants of the P3 and Pe across tasks. The implication is that high trait disinhibition relates mainly to reductions in brain responses associated with later elaborative stages in the processing of motivationally significant events across different tasks. Importantly, no-go ERN predicted disinhibition scores beyond N2/ERN factor scores, indicating that high disinhibition is not generally related to diminished early preresponse conflict and error processing, but rather to processing impairments in conditions calling for inhibition of prepotent response tendencies.     

The stability of error-related brain activity with increasing trials

The error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) are increasingly being examined as neural correlates of response monitoring. The minimum number of error trials included in grand averages varies across studies; indeed, there has not been a systematic investigation on the number of trials required to obtain a stable ERN and Pe. In the current study, the ERN and Pe were quantified as two random trials were added to participants' ( N =53) ERP averages. Adding trials increased the correlation with the grand average ERN and Pe; however, high correlations ( r s>.80) were obtained with only 6 trials. Internal reliability of the ERN and Pe reached moderate levels after 6 and 2 trials and the signal-to-noise ratio of the ERN and Pe did not change after 8 and 4 trials, respectively. Combined, these data suggest that the ERN and Pe can be quantified using a minimum of between 6 and 8 error trials.     

Neural response to action and reward prediction errors: Comparing the error‐related negativity to behavioral errors and the feedback‐related negativity to reward prediction violations

The error‐related negativity (ERN) is thought to index an anterior cingulate (ACC) behavioral monitoring system. The feedback ERN (FRN) is elicited to error feedback when the correct response is not known, but also when a choice outcome is suboptimal and to passive reward prediction violation, suggesting that the monitoring system may not be restricted to actions. This study used principal components analysis to show that the ERN consists of a single central component whereas the reward prediction violation FRN is comprised of central and prefrontal components. A prefrontal component is also present in action monitoring but occurs later, at the error positivity latency. This suggests that ACC monitors both actions and events for reward prediction error. Prefrontal cortex may update reward expectation based on the prediction violation with the latency difference due to differential processing time for motor and perceptual information.     

Electrocortical and behavioral measures of response monitoring in young children during a Go/No-Go task

The current study examined behavioral measures and response‐locked event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) derived from a Go/No‐Go task in a large (N = 328) sample of 5‐ to 7‐year‐olds in order to better understand the early development of response monitoring and the impact of child age and sex. In particular, the error‐related negativity (ERN, defined on both error trials alone and the difference between error and correct trials, or ΔERN), correct response negativity (CRN), and error positivity (P_e) were examined. Overall, the ERN, CRN, and the P_e were spatially and temporally similar to those measured in adults and older children. Even within our narrow age range, older children were faster and more accurate; a more negative ΔERN and a more positive P_e were associated with: increasing age, increased accuracy, and faster reaction times on errors, suggesting these enhanced components reflected more efficient response monitoring of errors over development. Girls were slower and more accurate than boys, although both genders exhibited comparable ERPs. Younger children and girls were characterized by increased posterror slowing, although they did not demonstrate improved posterror accuracy. Posterror slowing was also related to a larger P_e and reduced posterror accuracy. Collectively, these data suggest that posterror slowing may be unrelated to cognitive control and may, like the P_e, reflect an orienting response to errors. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 54:139‐150, 2012.     

Response-monitoring dysfunction in aging and Alzheimer's disease: an event-related potential study

Executive control is a broad-reaching function that includes response monitoring and is likely implemented in the frontal lobes. Age- and dementia-related changes in response-monitoring were assessed during a Picture-Name Verification Task, using response-synchronized event-related potential (ERP) markers of response monitoring: the centrally oriented error-related negativity (ERN); the smaller and more frontally-oriented correct-response negativity (CRN); and the positivity associated with errors (Pe), a marker of error awareness. These were recorded from 10 younger and 10 older healthy controls, as well as 12 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Although the older and younger controls showed equivalent accuracy, error awareness (Pe), and relative ERN>CRN amplitude, aging was associated with slower behavioral responses and decreased ERN amplitude. Although dementia was associated with decreased accuracy, decreased ERN, and a loss of relative ERN>CRN amplitude, error awareness (Pe) remained somewhat intact in AD patients. In AD patients, CRN amplitude was affected by item certainty (assessed a week earlier), being larger to items that were idiosyncratically difficult for patients to name.     

The effects of social exclusion on the ERN and the cognitive control of action monitoring

The current study investigated the influence of social exclusion, created through the Cyberball paradigm, on cognitive control using neural and behavioral measures of action monitoring. Healthy young adults performed a modified flanker task while their post‐error behavior (accuracy, RT) and error‐related negativity (ERN) were assessed. Results indicated that excluded participants showed decreased ERN and post‐error response accuracy compared to included participants following their social interactions. These findings suggest that a common neural framework may exist for cognitive control processes and that cognitive control allocated toward exclusion‐related processing following exclusionary social interactions may disrupt the capability to support self‐regulatory action monitoring.     

Development of response-monitoring ERPs in 7- to 25-year-olds

In a target discrimination task, trials with incorrect responses elicit event-related potentials (ERPs) that include an error-related negativity (ERN or Ne) and a later error-positivity (Pe). Substantial evidence points to the anterior cingulate cortex as the source generator of the ERN. We examined the development of ERP component morphology, amplitude and latency to processing of correct and incorrect responses in 124 children, 7 to 18 years of age, and 27 adults, 19 through 25 years of age. The ERN and Pe were recorded during a standard 480-trial visual flanker task. As expected, response times decreased significantly with age. The ERN amplitude in error trials increased with age, although this was qualified by a nonlinear change as well. The Pe amplitude did not change with age. In correct trials, most participants produced a small negativity corresponding to the timing of the ERN in error trials. This correct-response negativity (CRN) amplitude was larger in children than in adults. Results are discussed with respect to continued maturation of the anterior cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex into young adulthood.     

Error-related event-related potentials in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, reading disorder, and math disorder

We studied error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) during a discrimination task in 319 unmedicated children divided into subtypes of ADHD (Not-ADHD/inattentive/combined), learning disorder (Not-LD/reading/math/reading+math), and oppositional defiant disorder. Response-locked ERPs contained a frontocentral ERN and posterior Pe. Error-related negativity and positivity exhibited larger amplitude and later latency than corresponding waves for correct responses matched on reaction time. ADHD did not affect performance on the task. The ADHD/combined sample exceeded controls in ERN amplitude, perhaps reflecting patients' adaptive monitoring efforts. Compared with controls, subjects with reading disorder and reading+math disorder performed worse on the task and had marginally more negative correct-related negativities. In contrast, Pe/Pc was smaller in children with reading+math disorder than among subjects with reading disorder and Not-LD participants; this nonspecific finding is not attributable to error processing. The results reflect anomalies in error processing in these disorders but further research is needed to address inconsistencies in the literature.     

Methylphenidate improves deficient error evaluation in children with ADHD: an event-related brain potential study

Children with ADHD make more errors than control children in response-conflict tasks. To explore whether this is mediated by enhanced sensitivity to conflict or reduced error-processing, task-related brain activity (N2, Ne/ERN, Pe) was compared between 8- to 12-year-old children with ADHD and healthy controls during performance of a flanker task. Furthermore, effects of methylphenidate were investigated in ADHD children in a second study. ADHD children made more errors, especially in high-response-conflict conditions, without showing post-error slowing. N2 amplitudes were enhanced on trials resulting in an error response, Ne/ERN amplitude was unaffected and Pe amplitude was reduced in the ADHD group. Methylphenidate reduced errors in both low- and high-conflict conditions and normalized Pe amplitudes in children with ADHD. It was concluded that the inaccurate behaviour of ADHD children in conflict tasks might be related to reduced error-awareness and higher sensitivity to response conflict. Methylphenidate's ameliorating effects might be established through its influence on brain networks including posterior (parietal) cortex, enabling children with ADHD to allocate more attention to significant events.     

Changes of performance monitoring with learning in older and younger adults

This study examined age differences in performance monitoring during learning of a stimulus-response association task. At the beginning of the learning process, amplitudes of the response-locked error-related negativity (ERN or Ne) and correct response-related negativity (CRN) did not differ in both age groups. With advanced learning the response ERN/Ne increased and the CRN decreased in younger adults, but did not dissociate in older adults. Feedback ERN amplitudes decreased with learning in both age groups and were reduced in older relative to younger adults. Results indicate that performance monitoring became error specific with advanced learning in younger adults, but not in older adults. This might be due to weak representations of stimulus-response mappings in older adults as they learned worse. The decrease of the feedback ERN with learning and aging might suggest a decline of attention paid to negative feedback.     

Event-related potentials elicited by errors during the stop-signal task. II: human effector-specific error responses

Although previous research with human and nonhuman primates has examined the neural correlates of performance monitoring, discrepancies in methodology have limited our ability to make cross-species generalizations. One major obstacle arises from the use of different behavioral responses and tasks across different primate species. Specifically, it is unknown whether performance-monitoring mechanisms rely on different neural circuitry in tasks requiring oculomotor vs. skeletomotor responses. Here, we show that the human error-related negativity (ERN) elicited by a saccadic eye-movement response relative to a manual response differs in several critical ways. The human saccadic ERN exhibits a prolonged duration, a broader frontomedial voltage distribution, and different neural source estimates than the manual ERN in exactly the same stop-signal task. The human saccadic error positivity (Pe) exhibited a frontomedial voltage distribution with estimated electrical sources in supplementary motor area and rostral anterior cingulate cortex for saccadic responses, whereas the manual Pe showed a posterior scalp distribution and potential origins in the superior parietal lobule. These findings constrain models of the cognitive mechanisms indexed by the ERN/Pe complex. Moreover, by paralleling work with nonhuman primates performing the same saccadic stop-signal task (Godlove et al. 2011), we demonstrate a cross-species homology of error event-related potentials (ERPs) and lay the groundwork for definitively localizing the neural sources of performance-monitoring ERPs.