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Emotional pictures are inherently prioritized during stimulus perception. While this preferential emotion processing promotes self-preservation and survival, it can be detrimental when it conflicts with current goals and intentions. Recent brain imaging research suggests that the brain resolves such conflicts by suppressing the processing of emotional distractors at the perceptual level. Beyond brain imaging, event-related scalp potential studies in humans have traced preferential emotion processing at distinct temporal stages. Comparing emotional to neutral pictures, an early stage is indexed by the early posterior negativity (EPN) component featuring a relative negativity over posterior sites, while a later stage is associated with the late positive potential (LPP), manifesting as relative positivity over centro-parietal sensors. However, little is known whether emotional response conflict is resolved at each of those processing stages, or whether conflict resolution operates selectively at early or late stages, respectively. The present study assessed EPN and LPP to emotional distractors in an emotional Stroop task as a function of response conflict in the previous trial. Conflict-related processing during the Stroop task was confirmed by a behavioral conflict adaptation effect and modulation of the congruency-sensitive N450 component. Preferential processing of emotional distractors was observed for the EPN as well as the LPP. While the EPN was completely unaffected by conflict in the previous trial, the LPP was selectively reduced subsequent to trials featuring high response conflict. This observation provides support for a conflict-based control of emotion processing and demonstrates that cognitive control acts selectively at specific stages of emotion perception. • Affective vs. neutral distractors elicit an EPN and LPP in an emotional Stroop task. • The LPP but not EPN effect is abolished when distractors previously caused conflict. • Processing of affective distractor stimuli is influenced by conflict monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Balancing stability and flexibility is required to facilitate successful task selection in situations with competing stimuli. Research suggests a set of counteracting control processes that maintains this balance. In the present study, we investigate how two neural correlates of task preparation in event-related potentials (ERPs), the mixing positivity and the switch positivity, can be linked to stability and flexibility in task selection. In a cued task switching paradigm, we analyzed deviations of these ERPs when task confusions occurred, that is, when participants erroneously executed the currently irrelevant task. We found a reduced mixing positivity to be a main source of task confusions in a task environment that required ongoing switches between competing tasks, whereas the switch positivity was uninvolved here. However, an overabundance of this latter component was a source of task confusions in a task environment that required the repetitive execution of the same task, although task switches were not required at all in this condition. These results not only highlight the distinct functional significance of the two preparatory ERPs and show that control processes can be maladaptive in certain contexts. They can also be utilized to locate the mixing positivity and the switch positivity on the stability-flexibility spectrum. Our results are in line with accounts that suggest that a balance between stability and flexibility is facilitated by the concurrent involvement of two control processes. One that manages the top-down bias of the relevant task set and one that increases or decreases competition between alternatively available stimuli. • We decoded general and switch-specific preparation in two task environments. • Reduced general preparation preceded task confusions in mixed-task blocks. • Increased switch-specific preparation preceded task confusions in single-task blocks. • Our results link the two forms of preparation to cognitive stability and flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Directing attention to task-relevant stimuli is crucial for successful task performance, but too much attentional selectivity implies that new and unexpected information in the environment remains undetected. A possible mechanism for optimizing this fundamental trade-off could be an error monitoring system that immediately triggers attentional adjustments following the detection of behavioral errors. However, the existence of rapid adaptive post-error adjustments has been controversially debated. While preconscious error processing reflected by an error-related negativity (Ne/ERN) in the event-related potential has been shown to occur within milliseconds after errors, more recent studies concluded that error detection even impairs attentional selectivity and that adaptive adjustments are implemented, if at all, only after errors are consciously detected. Here, we employ steady-state visual evoked potentials elicited by continuously presented stimuli to precisely track the emergence of error-induced attentional adjustments. Our results indicate that errors lead to an immediate reallocation of attention towards task-relevant stimuli, which occurs simultaneously with the Ne/ERN. Single-trial variation of this adjustment was correlated with the Ne/ERN amplitude and predicted adaptive behavioral adjustments on the post-error trial. This suggests that early error monitoring in the medial frontal cortex is directly involved in eliciting adaptive attentional adjustments. Highlights • SSVEPs were used to track the time course of attentional post-error adjustments. • Errors lead to an immediate allocation of attention to relevant stimuli. • Adjustments occur simultaneously with Ne/ERN and correlate with its amplitude. • Adjustments predict adaptive behavioral adjustments on post-error trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive decision-making requires that feedback about decision outcomes is adequately processed. Recent studies have shown that fronto-central event-related potentials (ERPs) are sensitive to feedback valence and can be used as an index of feedback processing. The present study investigated whether the processes involved in feedback evaluation are affected by top-down mechanisms driven by knowledge about feedback validity. In a simple decision task, participants had to make use of feedback to learn which one of two stimuli was associated with a reward in a later test phase. Feedback stimuli were followed by a cue indicating whether feedback was valid or invalid. Prior to each block, participants were informed about the frequency of valid feedback in this block. An effect of feedback validity was obtained not only for learning but also for fronto-central ERPs. While high-validity feedback was associated with a fronto-central valence effect, this effect was absent for low-validity feedback. This indicates that processes involved in feedback evaluation are affected by prior knowledge about feedback validity via top-down processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Error-related brain activity has been linked to error detection enabling adaptive behavioral adjustments. However, it is still unclear which role error awareness plays in this process. Here, we show that the error-related negativity (Ne/ERN), an event-related potential reflecting early error monitoring, is dissociable from the degree of error awareness. Participants responded to a target while ignoring two different incongruent distractors. After responding, they indicated whether they had committed an error, and if so, whether they had responded to one or to the other distractor. This error classification paradigm allowed distinguishing partially aware errors, (i.e., errors that were noticed but misclassified) and fully aware errors (i.e., errors that were correctly classified). The Ne/ERN was larger for partially aware errors than for fully aware errors. Whereas this speaks against the idea that the Ne/ERN foreshadows the degree of error awareness, it confirms the prediction of a computational model, which relates the Ne/ERN to post-response conflict. This model predicts that stronger distractor processing – a prerequisite of error classification in our paradigm – leads to lower post-response conflict and thus a smaller Ne/ERN. This implies that the relationship between Ne/ERN and error awareness depends on how error awareness is related to response conflict in a specific task. Our results further indicate that the Ne/ERN but not the degree of error awareness determines adaptive performance adjustments. Taken together, we conclude that the Ne/ERN is dissociable from error awareness and foreshadows adaptive performance adjustments. Our results suggest that the relationship between the Ne/ERN and error awareness is correlative and mediated by response conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For adaptive decision-making it is important to utilize only relevant, valid and to ignore irrelevant feedback. The present study investigated how feedback processing in decision-making is impaired when relevant feedback is combined with irrelevant and potentially invalid feedback. We analyzed two electrophysiological markers of feedback processing, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and the P300, in a simple decision-making task, in which participants processed feedback stimuli consisting of relevant and irrelevant feedback provided by the color and meaning of a Stroop stimulus. We found that invalid, irrelevant feedback not only impaired learning, it also altered the amplitude of the P300 to relevant feedback, suggesting an interfering effect of irrelevant feedback on the processing of relevant feedback. In contrast, no such effect on the FRN was obtained. These results indicate that detrimental effects of invalid, irrelevant feedback result from failures of controlled feedback processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concurrent execution of temporally overlapping tasks leads to considerable interference between the subtasks. This also impairs control processes associated with the detection of performance errors. In the present study, we investigated how the human brain adapts to this interference between task representations in such multitasking scenarios. In Experiment 1, participants worked on a dual-tasking paradigm with partially overlapping execution of two tasks (T1 and T2), while we recorded error-related scalp potentials. The error positivity (Pe), a correlate of higher-level error evaluation, was reduced after T1 errors but occurred after a correct T2-response instead. MVPA-based and regression-based single-trial analysis revealed that the immediate Pe and deferred Pe are negatively correlated, suggesting a trial-wise trade-off between immediate and postponed error processing. Experiment 2 confirmed this finding and additionally showed that this result is not due to credit-assignment errors in which a T1 error is falsely attributed to T2. For the first time reporting a Pe that is temporally detached from its eliciting error event by a considerable amount of time, this study illustrates how reliable error detection in dual-tasking is maintained by a mechanism that adaptively schedules error processing, thus demonstrating a remarkable flexibility of the human brain when adapting to multitasking situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been suggested that stimulus novelty itself can be rewarding and recent evidence suggests that novelty processing and reward processing share common neural mechanisms. For feedback processing, this can be beneficial as well as detrimental: If novelty lends a rewarding characteristic to a stimulus, then this should particularly decrease the impact of negative feedback. The present study investigated whether such an effect of feedback novelty on feedback processing is reflected in electrophysiological markers of reinforcement learning (feedback-related negativity, FRN) and feedback processing (feedback-P300) in a simple decision-making task. In this task, participants had to chose between two stimuli in a learning trial followed by a novel or a familiar feedback stimulus. Learning from feedback allowed them to optimize their payoff in a later test trial. As expected, we found that the FRN effect, i.e. the difference between the FRN amplitudes after negative and positive feedback, was reduced for novel compared to familiar feedback stimuli. In addition, the amplitude of the feedback-P300 was decreased by feedback novelty, both for the anterior P3a and the posterior P3b. Together, these results indicate that feedback novelty can affect feedback processing as reflected by feedback-related brain activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The purpose of the present study was to determine whether responding to multiple concurrent conflicts results in a simultaneous or sequential conflict resolution. To this end, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) in a paradigm combining a Stroop and a flanker task. In this paradigm, participants were asked to respond to the color of the central letter while ignoring the meaning of the word (Stroop task) and the color of the flanking letters (flanker task). Trials were either incongruent (i.e., inducing a conflict between two response alternatives) or congruent (i.e., inducing no response conflict) in both tasks, or incongruent in one task and congruent in the other task. The behavioral results showed a smaller Stroop congruency effect (i.e., a smaller difference between Stroop incongruent and congruent trials) for flanker incongruent than for flanker congruent trials, replicating previous findings. The ERP results showed that an early ERP component (i.e., P2) was associated with the resolution of the flanker conflict, whereas a later component (i.e., N450) was associated with the resolution of the Stroop conflict. Together, these findings emphasize a sequential organization of conflict resolution processes in the brain which is adaptive when facing multiple concurrent conflicts. Highlights • Combining a Stroop task with a flanker task shows a sequential conflict resolution. • Resolution of the flanker conflict was associated with an early P2. • Resolution of the Stroop conflict was associated with a later N450. • A sequential organization is adaptive when facing multiple concurrent conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Errors in human behavior elicit a cascade of brain activity related to performance monitoring and error detection. Whereas the early error-related negativity (Ne/ERN) has been assumed to reflect a fast mismatch or prediction error signal in the medial frontal cortex, the later error positivity (Pe) is viewed as a correlate of conscious error processing. A still open question is whether these components represent two independent systems of error monitoring that rely on different types of information to detect an error. Here, we investigated the prediction that the Ne/ERN but not the Pe requires a representation of the correct response to emerge. To this end, we created a condition in which no information about the correct response was available while error detection was still possible. We hypothesized that a Pe, but no Ne/ERN should be obtained in this case. Participants had to classify targets but ignore flankers that were always associated with an incorrect response. Targets but not flankers were masked with varying target-masking intervals. Crucially, on some trials no target at all was presented, thus preventing the representation of a correct response and the emergence of an Ne/ERN. However, because flankers were easily visible and responses to the flankers were always incorrect, detection of these flanker errors was still possible. In line with predictions of a multiple-systems account, we observed a robust Pe in the absence of an Ne/ERN for these errors. Moreover, this Pe relied on the same neural activity as that on trials with a visible target, as revealed by multivariate pattern analysis. These findings demonstrate that the mechanisms reflected by the two components use different types of information to detect errors, providing evidence for independent systems of human error monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Errors in speeded choice tasks can lead to post-error adjustments both on the behavioral and on the neural level. There is an ongoing debate whether such adjustments result from adaptive processes that serve to optimize performance or whether they reflect interference from error monitoring or attentional orientation. The present study aimed at identifying adaptive adjustments in a two-stage visual search task, in which participants had to select and subsequently identify a target stimulus presented to the left or right visual hemifield. Target selection and identification can be measured by two distinct event-related potentials, the N2pc and the SPCN. Using a decoder analysis based on multivariate pattern analysis, we were able to isolate the processing stages related to error sources and post-error adjustments. Whereas errors were linked to deviations in the N2pc and the SPCN, only for the N2pc we identified a post-error adjustment, which exhibits key features of source-specific adaptivity. While errors were associated with an increased N2pc, post-error adjustments consisted in an N2pc decrease. We interpret this as an adaptive adjustment of target selection to prevent errors due to disproportionate processing of the task-irrelevant target location. Our study thus provides evidence for adaptive post-error adjustments in visual search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present study investigated adjustments of selective attention following errors and their relation to the error-related negativity (Ne/ERN), a correlate of errors in event-related potentials. We hypothesized that, if post-error adjustments reflect an adaptive mechanism that should prevent the occurrence of further errors, then adjustments of attentional selectivity should be observed only following errors due to insufficient selective attention. To test this, a four-choice flanker task was used in which errors due to insufficient selective attention (flanker errors) and other errors (nonflanker errors) could be distinguished. We found strong adjustments of selective attention following flanker errors but not following nonflanker errors. Moreover, the Ne/ERN amplitude was correlated with adjustments of selective attention on a trial-by-trial basis. The results provide support for the notion that the Ne/ERN is a correlate of adaptive adjustments following errors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Is confidence in perceptual decisions generated by the same brain processes as decision itself, or does confidence require metacognitive processes following up on the decision? In a masked orientation task with varying stimulus-onset-asynchrony, we used EEG and cognitive modelling to trace the timing of the neural correlates of confidence. Confidence reported by human observers increased with stimulus-onset-asynchrony in correct and to a lesser degree in incorrect trials, a pattern incompatible with established models of confidence. Electrophysiological activity was associated with confidence in two different time periods, namely 350–500 ​ms after stimulus onset and 250–350 ​ms after the response. Cognitive modelling revealed that only the activity following on the stimulus exhibited the same statistical regularities as confidence, while the statistical pattern of the activity following the response was incompatible with confidence. It is argued that electrophysiological markers of confidence and error awareness are at least in parts distinct. • The present study tracks the timing of neural correlates of confidence. • Cognitive modelling was used to assess the statistical properties of confidence. • The statistical properties of ERN and Pe were inconsistent with confidence. • The statistical properties of the stimulus-locked P3 and confidence were the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Humans frequently report that they detected errors already before executing the error response. • Early error sensations occur consistently across tasks and metacognitive measures. • Early error sensations are not caused by an expectation bias. Errors in choice tasks are not only detected fast and reliably, participants often report that they knew that an error occurred already before a response was produced. These early error sensations stand in contrast with evidence suggesting that the earliest neural correlates of error awareness emerge around 300 ms after erroneous responses. The present study aimed to investigate whether anecdotal evidence for early error sensations can be corroborated in a controlled study in which participants provide metacognitive judgments on the subjective timing of error awareness. In Experiment 1, participants had to report whether they became aware of their errors before or after the response. In Experiment 2, we measured confidence in these metacognitive judgments. Our data show that participants report early error sensations with high confidence in the majority of error trials across paradigms and experiments. These results provide first evidence for early error sensations, informing theories of error awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]