The Error-Related Negativity, Self-Monitoring, and Consciousness

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanislas Dehaene
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Monitoring System ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Error Monitoring ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Error Related Negativity ◽  
Internal Comparison

The error-related negativity (ERN) is a negative waveform that arises over the front of the scalp immediately after a participant makes a detectable error. The goal of this short article is to describe my serendipitous encounter with this brain signal in 1993–1994 and to briefly review the operation of the underlying error-monitoring system. Recent work suggests that the ERN reflects an internal comparison, by the anterior cingulate cortex, of two signals: an unconscious representation of the ongoing action and a conscious representation of the intended one.

scholarly journals Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex intrinsic functional connectivity linked to electrocortical measures of error-monitoring

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayley Gilbertson ◽  
Lin Fang ◽  
Jeremy A. Andrzejewski ◽  
Joshua M. Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Functional Coupling ◽  
Error Monitoring ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex

AbstractThe error-related negativity (ERN) is a response-locked event-related potential, occurring approximately 50 ms following an erroneous response at frontocentral electrode sites. Source localization and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research indicate that the ERN is likely generated by activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). The dACC is thought to be a part of a broader network of brain regions that collectively comprise an error-monitoring network. However, little is known about how intrinsic connectivity within the dACC-based error-monitoring network contributes to variability in ERN amplitude. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between dACC functional connectivity and ERN amplitude. In a sample of 53 highly trait-anxious individuals, the ERN was elicited in a flanker task and functional connectivity was assessed in a 10-minute resting-state fMRI scan. Results suggest that the strength of dACC seeded functional connectivity with the supplementary motor area is correlated with the ΔERN (i.e., incorrect – correct responses) amplitude such that greater ΔERN amplitude was accompanied by greater functional coupling between these regions. In addition to the dACC, exploratory analyses found that functional connectivity in the caudate, cerebellum, and a number of regions in the error-monitoring network were linked to variability in ΔERN amplitude. In sum, ERN amplitude appears to be related to the strength of functional connectivity between error-monitoring and motor control regions of the brain.

scholarly journals Error Negativity Does Not Reflect Conflict: A Reappraisal of Conflict Monitoring and Anterior Cingulate Cortex Activity

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1637-1655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Borís Burle ◽  
Clémence Roger ◽  
Sonia Allain ◽  
Franck Vidal ◽  
Thierry Hasbroucq
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Short Time Scale ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Error Related Negativity ◽  
On Line ◽  
Trial Basis ◽  
Temporal Overlap

Our ability to detect and correct errors is essential for our adaptive behavior. The conflict-loop theory states that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a key role in detecting the need to increase control through conflict monitoring. Such monitoring is assumed to manifest itself in an electroencephalographic (EEG) component, the “error negativity” (Ne or “error-related negativity” [ERN]). We have directly tested the hypothesis that the ACC monitors conflict through simulation and experimental studies. Both the simulated and EEG traces were sorted, on a trial-by-trial basis, as a function of the degree of conflict, measured as the temporal overlap between incorrect and correct response activations. The simulations clearly show that conflict increases as temporal overlap between response activation increases, whereas the experimental results demonstrate that the amplitude of the Ne decreases as temporal overlap increases, suggesting that the ACC does not monitor conflict. At a functional level, the results show that the duration of the Ne depends on the time needed to correct (partial) errors, revealing an “on-line” modulation of control on a very short time scale.

scholarly journals The Role of Intact Frontostriatal Circuits in Error Processing

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 651-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Ullsperger ◽  
D. Yves von Cramon
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
Brain Plasticity ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Cortical Circuits ◽  
Lateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Error Related Negativity

The basal ganglia have been suggested to play a key role in performance monitoring and resulting behavioral adjustments. It is assumed that the integration of prefrontal and motor cortico—striato—thalamo—cortical circuits provides contextual information to the motor anterior cingulate cortex regions to enable their function in performance monitoring. So far, direct evidence is missing, however. We addressed the involvement of frontostriatal circuits in performance monitoring by collecting event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and behavioral data in nine patients with focal basal ganglia lesions and seven patients with lateral prefrontal cortex lesions while they performed a flanker task. In both patient groups, the amplitude of the error-related negativity was reduced, diminishing the difference to the ERPs on correct responses. Despite these electrophysiological abnormalities, most of the patients were able to correct errors. Only in lateral prefrontal cortex patients whose lesions extended into the frontal white matter, disrupting the connections to the motor anterior cingulate cortex and the striatum, were error corrections severely impaired. In sum, the fronto—striato—thalamo—cortical circuits seem necessary for the generation of error-related negativity, even when brain plasticity has resulted in behavioral compensation of the damage. Thus, error-related ERPs in patients provide a sensitive measure of the integrity of the performance monitoring network.

Reversing Reciprocal Suppression in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex: A Hypothetical Model to Explain EMDR Effectiveness

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryce Kaye
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Affective Processing ◽  
Error Monitoring ◽  
Hypothetical Model ◽  
Distraction Effect ◽  
Finger Tracking ◽  
Cognitive Areas

A theoretical model is proposed to explain desensitization during Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) as resulting from the reversal of reciprocal suppression of cognitive processing in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Dual-attention and error monitoring are known to activate dorsal regions of the ACC that mediate metacognitive processing. Neuroimaging research has produced evidence that cognitive areas in the upper ACC may reciprocally suppress affective processing in the lower areas and vice versa. It is therefore proposed that the original eye-to-finger tracking task of EMDR may achieve its therapeutic effect by using error monitoring to reverse suppression of the upper ACC by the lower ACC. Contributions to EMDR effectiveness from resource installation and novelty-driven orienting reflexes may also influence ACC functioning. A distraction effect is proposed to be a negative and potentially disruptive by-product of very interactive stimulation tasks. A semantic priming procedure is suggested to limit distraction effects during more interactive forms of stimulation.

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