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Early Error Detection Predicted by Reduced Pre-response Control Process: An ERP Topographic Mapping Study

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Abstract

Advanced ERP topographic mapping techniques were used to study error monitoring functions in human adult participants, and test whether proactive attentional effects during the pre-response time period could later influence early error detection mechanisms (as measured by the ERN component) or not. Participants performed a speeded go/nogo task, and made a substantial number of false alarms that did not differ from correct hits as a function of behavioral speed or actual motor response. While errors clearly elicited an ERN component generated within the dACC following the onset of these incorrect responses, I also found that correct hits were associated with a different sequence of topographic events during the pre-response baseline time-period, relative to errors. A main topographic transition from occipital to posterior parietal regions (including primarily the precuneus) was evidenced for correct hits ~170–150 ms before the response, whereas this topographic change was markedly reduced for errors. The same topographic transition was found for correct hits that were eventually performed slower than either errors or fast (correct) hits, confirming the involvement of this distinctive posterior parietal activity in top-down attentional control rather than motor preparation. Control analyses further ensured that this pre-response topographic effect was not related to differences in stimulus processing. Furthermore, I found a reliable association between the magnitude of the ERN following errors and the duration of this differential precuneus activity during the pre-response baseline, suggesting a functional link between an anticipatory attentional control component subserved by the precuneus and early error detection mechanisms within the dACC. These results suggest reciprocal links between proactive attention control and decision making processes during error monitoring.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by grants from the European Research Council (Starting Grant #200758) and Ghent University (BOF Grant #05Z01708). Thanks to Dr. Roland Vocat for earlier discussions on error detection brain mechanisms, and to Dr. Monica Dhar for her comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

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  1. Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Gilles Pourtois

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Supplementary Fig. 1

a A control analysis was carried out to assess whether the occurrence of errors (i.e. false alarms) varied with the delay/SOA (between the black arrow/cue and the changing arrow/target) or not. This SOA varied randomly between 1,000 and 2,000 ms (with steps of 100 ms) on a trial by trial basis. This analysis clearly confirmed a lack of systematic relationship between the cue-target interval and the prevalence of errors. Errors were distributed evenly across the different (and randomized) SOAs used. b An additional control analysis was also performed to look at the RT distribution for errors, relative to fast hits, and eventually ascertain a reasonable overlap between these two RT distributions. The RT distribution for errors was found to tightly overlap with that obtained for fast hits, confirming that errors were comparable to fast hits. (TIFF 125 kb)

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Pourtois, G. Early Error Detection Predicted by Reduced Pre-response Control Process: An ERP Topographic Mapping Study. Brain Topogr 23, 403–422 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-010-0159-5

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