Performance Monitoring Deficits Research Articles

The relationship between response dynamics and the formation of confidence varies across the lifespan.

Accurate metacognitive judgments, such as forming a confidence judgment, are crucial for goal-directed behavior but decline with older age. Besides changes in the sensory processing of stimulus features, there might also be changes in the motoric aspects of giving responses that account for age-related changes in confidence. In order to assess the association between confidence and response parameters across the adult lifespan, we measured response times and peak forces in a four-choice flanker task with subsequent confidence judgments. In 65 healthy adults from 20 to 76 years of age, we showed divergent associations of each measure with confidence, depending on decision accuracy. Participants indicated higher confidence after faster responses in correct but not incorrect trials. They also indicated higher confidence after less forceful responses in errors but not in correct trials. Notably, these associations were age-dependent as the relationship between confidence and response time was more pronounced in older participants, while the relationship between confidence and response force decayed with age. Our results add to the notion that confidence is related to response parameters and demonstrate noteworthy changes in the observed associations across the adult lifespan. These changes potentially constitute an expression of general age-related deficits in performance monitoring or, alternatively, index a failing mechanism in the computation of confidence in older adults.

Behavioral and Electrophysiological Correlates of Performance Monitoring and Development in Children and Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

The pathophysiology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) involves deficits in performance monitoring and adaptive adjustments. Yet, the developmental trajectory and underlying neural correlates of performance monitoring deficits in youth with ADHD remain poorly understood. To address the gap, this study recruited 77 children and adolescents with ADHD and 77 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC), ages 8–18 years, who performed an arrow flanker task during electroencephalogram recording. Compared to HC, participants with ADHD responded more slowly and showed larger reaction time variability (RTV) and reduced post-error slowing; they also exhibited reduced error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity effects, and reduced N2 and P3 congruency effects. Age effects were observed across groups: with increasing age, participants responded faster, with less variability, and with increased post-error slowing. They also exhibited increased ERN effects and increased N2 and P3 congruency effects. Increased RTV and reduced P3 amplitude in incongruent trials were associated with increased ADHD Problems Scale scores on the Child Behavior Checklist across groups. The altered behavioral and ERP responses in ADHD are consistent with the pattern associated with younger age across groups. Further research with a longitudinal design may determine specific aspects of developmental alteration and deficits in ADHD during performance monitoring.

Mind-wandering in healthy aging and early stage Alzheimer's disease.

The frequency of mind-wandering (MW) decreases as a function of age in healthy individuals. One possible explanation is that MW is a resource-dependent process, and cognitive resources decline with age. The present study provides the first investigation of MW in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) to further examine the resource model and discontinuities between healthy aging and AD. Three large cohorts completed the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART): a healthy middle-aged group (mean age = 61.79 ± 5.84 years; N = 270), a healthy older adult group (mean age = 76.58 ± 5.27 years; N = 282), and a group with early stage AD (mean age = 76.08 ± 7.17; N = 77), comparable in age to the second group. Self-reports of MW during the SART decreased as a function of age, and there was a further decrease in the AD group. All 3 groups produced faster responses on trials before No-Go errors, suggesting MW occurred in all cohorts. After No-Go errors, healthy older adults slowed disproportionately compared with middle-aged adults. This was not evident in AD individuals who showed posterror slowing comparable with that in the middle-aged group. The decreased self-reported MW in older adults and the further decline in AD are consistent with the cognitive resource account of MW. Behavioral indices suggest that AD is on a continuum with healthy aging, with the exception of posterror slowing that may suggest performance monitoring deficits in early AD individuals (e.g., lack of error awareness). (PsycINFO Database Record

Performance Monitoring in Children Following Traumatic Brain Injury Compared to Typically Developing Children.

Children with traumatic brain injury are reported to have deficits in performance monitoring, but the mechanisms underlying these deficits are not well understood. Four performance monitoring hypotheses were explored by comparing how 28 children with traumatic brain injury and 28 typically developing controls (matched by age and sex) performed on the stop-signal task. Control children slowed significantly more following incorrect than correct stop-signal trials, fitting the error monitoring hypothesis. In contrast, the traumatic brain injury group showed no performance monitoring difference with trial types, but significant group differences did not emerge, suggesting that children with traumatic brain injury may not perform the same way as controls.

Evaluating the consequences of impaired monitoring of learned behavior in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder using a Bayesian hierarchical model of choice response time.

Performance monitoring deficits have been proposed as a cognitive marker involved in the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but it is unclear whether these deficits cause impairment when established action sequences conflict with environmental demands. The current study applies a novel data-analytic technique to a well-established sequence learning paradigm to investigate reactions to disruption of learned behavior in ADHD. Children (ages 8-12) with and without ADHD completed a serial reaction time task in which they implicitly learned an 8-item sequence of keypresses over 5 training blocks. The training sequence was replaced with a novel sequence in a transfer block, and returned in 2 subsequent recovery blocks. Response time (RT) data were fit by a Bayesian hierarchical version of the linear ballistic accumulator model, which permitted the dissociation of learning processes from performance monitoring effects on RT. Sequence-specific learning on the task was reflected in the systematic reduction of the amount of evidence required to initiate a response, and was unimpaired in ADHD. When the novel sequence onset, typically developing children displayed a shift in their attentional state while children with ADHD did not, leading to worse subsequent performance compared to controls. Children with ADHD are not impaired in learning novel action sequences, but display difficulty monitoring their implementation and engaging top-down control when they become inadequate. These results support theories of ADHD that highlight the interactions between monitoring processes and changing cognitive demands as the cause of self-regulation and information-processing problems in the disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record

Evidence of deficits in behavioural inhibition and performance monitoring in young female heavy drinkers

BackgroundNew models of the development and maintenance of substance abuse give increasing importance to the role of deficits in inhibitory function. Much of the evidence to support this claim comes from male participants, despite some researchers showing greater disinhibition in females. Clearly, more research on female heavy drinkers is warranted. In this study, we examine behavioural and psychophysiological measures of inhibitory function in female young adults who do and do not regularly drink heavily. MethodsParticipants were thirty female young adults (aged 18–21) who drink heavily (four or more standard drinks per occasion) at least once a month (n=13) or who drink heavily less often than this (n=17); none regularly used any other drugs, including tobacco. They underwent interviews assessing prior use of alcohol, before completing a stop-signal task while brain electrical activity was recorded. ResultsRegular heavy drinkers displayed a longer stop-signal reaction time (the time required to stop an inappropriate response), and a larger P3 increase for successful compared to failed inhibition trials. Heavy drinkers also displayed a smaller error-related negativity (ERN) amplitude, indexing a deficit in performance monitoring. ConclusionThese results indicate that large deficits in inhibitory processing and performance monitoring occur in young female heavy drinkers, and that heavy drinkers may have to work harder in order to successfully inhibit a response. Future research may determine whether these deficits pre-date or are caused by alcohol abuse.

Speeding up older adults: Age-effects on error processing in speed and accuracy conditions

Behavioral performance in older adults is often characterized by normal error rates but longer response latencies compared to younger adults. The slowing of reaction times might reflect a compensatory strategy to avoid errors and might be associated with performance monitoring alterations. The present study investigated whether the ability to compensate for potential deficits influences age-related differences in performance monitoring. A modified flanker task was used with either accuracy or speed instruction. Both groups showed reliable differences between conditions: accuracy, reaction times and error-related negativities were reduced in the speed compared with the accuracy condition. Older adults showed smaller error-related negativities compared with younger adults and the reduction was more pronounced in the speed condition. Further, similar-sized error-related and correct-related negativities were found in older adults. Results indicate that performance monitoring deficits in older adults are related to deficits in behavioral performance, at least if they are forced to respond quickly.

Methylphenidate Normalizes Frontocingulate Underactivation During Error Processing in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

BackgroundChildren with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have deficits in performance monitoring often improved with the indirect catecholamine agonist methylphenidate (MPH). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the effects of single-dose MPH on activation of error processing brain areas in medication-naive boys with ADHD during a stop task that elicits 50% error rates.MethodsTwelve medication-naive boys with ADHD were scanned twice, under either a single clinical dose of MPH or placebo, in a randomized, double-blind design while they performed an individually adjusted tracking stop task, designed to elicit 50% failures. Brain activation was compared within patients under either drug condition. To test for potential normalization effects of MPH, brain activation in ADHD patients under either drug condition was compared with that of 13 healthy age-matched boys.ResultsDuring failed inhibition, boys with ADHD under placebo relative to control subjects showed reduced brain activation in performance monitoring areas of dorsomedial and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortices, thalamus, cingulate, and parietal regions. MPH, relative to placebo, upregulated activation in these brain regions within patients and normalized all activation differences between patients and control subjects. During successful inhibition, MPH normalized reduced activation observed in patients under placebo compared with control subjects in parietotemporal and cerebellar regions.ConclusionsMPH normalized brain dysfunction in medication-naive ADHD boys relative to control subjects in typical brain areas of performance monitoring, comprising left ventrolateral and dorsomedial frontal and parietal cortices. This could underlie the amelioration of MPH of attention and academic performance in ADHD.

Impaired conflict monitoring in Parkinson’s disease patients during an oculomotor redirect task

Fallibility is inherent in human cognition and so a system that will monitor performance is indispensable. While behavioral evidence for such a system derives from the finding that subjects slow down after trials that are likely to produce errors, the neural and behavioral characterization that enables such control is incomplete. Here, we report a specific role for dopamine/basal ganglia in response conflict by accessing deficits in performance monitoring in patients with Parkinson's disease. To characterize such a deficit, we used a modification of the oculomotor countermanding task to show that slowing down of responses that generate robust response conflict, and not post-error per se, is deficient in Parkinson's disease patients. Poor performance adjustment could be either due to impaired ability to slow RT subsequent to conflicts or due to impaired response conflict recognition. If the latter hypothesis was true, then PD subjects should show evidence of impaired error detection/correction, which was found to be the case. These results make a strong case for impaired performance monitoring in Parkinson's patients.

A touch screen based Stop Signal Response Task in rhesus monkeys for studying impulsivity associated with chronic cocaine self-administration

Among a range of cognitive deficits, human cocaine addicts display increased impulsivity and decreased performance monitoring. In order to establish an animal model that can be used to study the underlying neurobiology of these deficits associated with addiction, we have developed a touch screen based Stop Signal Response Task for rhesus monkeys. This task is essentially identical to the clinically used Stop Signal Task employed for diagnostic and research purposes. In this task, impulsivity is reflected in the amount of time needed to inhibit a response after it has been initiated, the Stop Signal Response Time (SSRT). Performance monitoring is reflected by the slowing of response times following Stop trials (Post-Stop Slowing, PSS). Herein we report on the task structure, the staged methods for training animals to perform the task, and a comparison of performance values for control and cocaine experienced animals. Relative to controls, monkeys that had self-administered cocaine, followed by 18 months abstinence, displayed increased impulsivity (increased SSRT values), and decreased performance monitoring (decreased PSS values). Our results are consistent with human data, and thereby establish an ideal animal model for studying the etiology and underlying neurobiology of cocaine-induced impulse control and performance monitoring deficits.

Performance monitoring, error processing, and evaluative control following severe TBI

Patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) often demonstrate impairments in performance monitoring--an evaluative control process that can be measured using the error-negativity/error-related negativity (Ne/ERN) and post-error positivity (Pe). The Ne/ERN and Pe are event-related potential (ERP) components generated following errors, with current theories suggesting the Ne/ERN reflects automatic performance monitoring and the Pe reflects error processing and awareness. To elucidate the electrophysiological mechanisms of performance monitoring deficits following severe TBI, behavioral and ERP measurements were obtained, whereas participants with severe TBI and neurologically-healthy comparison participants performed a modified color-naming version of the Stroop task. Behaviorally, both groups demonstrated robust response-time (RT) and error-rate interference. Participants with TBI exhibited generalized RT slowing; no significant between-groups interactions were present for RTs or error rates. ERP results indicate Ne/ERN amplitude was attenuated in participants with TBI, whereas the pattern of Pe amplitude did not clearly differentiate groups. Findings suggest the Ne/ERN as a potential electrophysiological marker of evaluative control/performance monitoring impairment following TBI. Implications for future research and potential clinical application as well as potential limitations in conducting electrophysiological research in neurologically-impaired populations are discussed.

Schizophrenia patients show intact immediate error-related performance adjustments on an antisaccade task

Objective Schizophrenia patients consistently show impairments on tasks requiring inhibition such as the antisaccade task. Deficits in performance monitoring including the detection of errors and subsequent adjustments to performance may contribute to such impairments. We examined whether immediate error-related performance adjustments during the antisaccade task were intact in schizophrenia. Method We compared 21 schizophrenia patients and 14 healthy control subjects on the following measures: 1) error-related, trial-by-trial adjustments in reaction time (pre-error speeding, faster errors and post-error slowing); 2) the speed–accuracy trade-off (SATO) function; and 3) the frequency and type of error self-correction. Results Although antisaccade performance in schizophrenia was characterized by increased errors and latency of correct responses, measures of immediate error-related performance adjustments were intact. Conclusion Schizophrenia is characterized by intact immediate error–related performance adjustments, even in the context of impaired antisaccade performance. It is possible that deficiencies in other aspects of error processing, indexed by electrophysiological and hemodynamic markers, contribute to antisaccade and other cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.