Abstract
Performance monitoring depends on cortical structures that are also activated in vicarious monitoring. While many experiments have shown that vicarious and on-line monitoring have a similar basis, most such experiments have focused on simple tasks. In order to assess the effect of non-contingent feedback on vicarious monitoring, 23 young volunteer adults were evaluated: in one session, they performed a rule-based category formation task, receiving no feedback on their performance. In a second session, Event Related Potentials (ERPs) were obtained while participants passively reviewed performances attributed to themselves and peers they had previously rated as either socially close or distant. Feedback Related Negativity (FRN) and Feedback Related P300 (fP300) components were analyzed with respect to feedback valence and agent. Results show that both components can be elicited through non-contingent feedback related to prior performance. In addition, FRN waves are modulated by the valence of the feedback, and fP300 is modulated by the agent to whom performance feedback is attributed. This experiment constitutes a novel approach to the evaluation of ERP correlates of vicarious monitoring through non-contingent feedback and its relations to empathy processing.
Highlights
Every action we perform depends upon a complex system in which both efferent and afferent systems participate establishing feedback loops
A complex network has consistently been shown to underlie performance monitoring: rapid responses depend on the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), error and conflict processing rely on medial structures, and task maintenance depends upon the DLPFC [1]
The aim of the present experiment was to study the characteristics of Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) and Feedback-Related P300 on a task in which performances of participants and classmates were reviewed
Summary
Every action we perform depends upon a complex system in which both efferent (motor) and afferent (sensitive) systems participate establishing feedback loops. Brain structures related to feedback processing have been widely studied: positive feedback has been shown to activate the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens) while negative feedback activates the rostral portion of the motor cingulate area, the anteroinferior portion of the insula and the epithalamus [2]. It has been proposed the ACC plays several roles in performance monitoring: conflict signaling in information processing [3,4], error detection [5,6], and reinforcement processing [7]
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