RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Error processing in the adolescent brain: Age-related differences in electrophysiology and links with post-error adjustments but no relationship to cingulate cortex structure
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 487959
DO 10.1101/487959
A1 Knut Overbye
A1 Kristine B. Walhovd
A1 Tomáš Paus
A1 Anders M. Fjell
A1 Rene J. Huster
A1 Christian K. Tamnes
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/12/05/487959.abstract
AB Detecting errors and adjusting behaviour appropriately are fundamental cognitive abilities that are known to improve through adolescence. The underlying mechanisms of this development, however, are still poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we performed a thorough investigation of error processing in a Flanker task in a cross-sectional sample of participants 8 to 19 years of age (n = 98). We examined age-differences in event related potentials known to be associated with error processing, namely the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe), as well as their relationships with task performance, post-error adjustments and regional cingulate cortex thickness and surface area. We found that ERN amplitude increased with age, while Pe amplitude remained constant. A more negative ERN was associated with higher task accuracy and faster reaction times, while a more positive Pe was associated with higher accuracy, independently of age. When estimating post-error adjustments from trials following both incongruent and congruent trials, post-error slowing and post-error improvement in accuracy both increased with age, but this was only found for post-error slowing when only analysing trials following incongruent trials. There were no age-independent associations between either ERN or Pe amplitude and cingulate cortex thickness or area measures.This study was supported by the Research Council of Norway (to KBW and to CKT), and the University of Oslo (to KO).