Abstract
Goal-directed behavior requires continuous action or performance monitoring. Good performance is reinforced; deviations from the goals, i.e., errors call for remedial actions or strategy adjustments. Recently, the existence of the error-related brain system has been inferred from the error-related negativity (ERN), components of the event-related potential (ERP) elicited following error commission in reaction time task (response-ERN) or following the presentation of error feedback (feedback-ERN)
To examine the function of feedback-ERN, we performed an experiment in which three within-participant factors were manipulated; gain/loss value accompanied with participants' response, uncertainty of prediction, and content of feedback. The amplitudes of feedback-ERN were consistently larger in an error feedback condition, especially in a low uncertainty condition; this effect varied with reward magnitude. That is, the amplitude of feedback-ERN was maximal when participants expected higher reward but received error feedback. Moreover, significant positive correlation was found between the amplitudes of feedback-ERN and the rate of response switching in the following trial. This result suggests that the feedback-ERN may reflect response selection based on reward-prediction error. (Japanese Journal of Physiological Psychology and Psychophysiology, 22 (1) : 19-32, 2004.)
