Event-related Brain Potentials Data Research Articles

Spatiotemporal pattern of brain electrical activity related to immediate and delayed episodic memory retrieval

In the present study we used the event-related brain potentials (ERP) technique and eLORETA (exact low-resolution electromagnetic tomography) method in order to characterize and compare the performance and the spatiotemporal pattern of the brain electrical activity related to the immediate episodic retrieval of information (words) that is being learned relative to delayed episodic retrieval twenty-minutes later. For this purpose, 16 young participants carried out an old/new word recognition task with source memory (word colour). The task included an immediate memory phase (with three study-test blocks) followed (20 min later) by a delayed memory phase with one test block. The behavioural data showed progressive learning and consolidation of the information (old words) during the immediate memory phase. The ERP data to correctly identified old words for which the colour was subsequently recollected (H/H) compared to the correctly rejected new words (CR) showed: (1) a significant more positive-going potential in the 500–675 ms post-stimulus interval (parietal old/new effect, related to recollection), and (2) a more negative-going potential in the 950–1850 ms interval (LPN effect, related to retrieval and post-retrieval processes). The eLORETA data also revealed that the successful recognition of old words (and probably retrieval of their colour) was accompanied by activation of (1) left medial temporal (parahippocampal gyrus) and parietal regions involved in the recollection in both memory phases, and (2) prefrontal regions and the superior temporal gyrus (in the immediate and delayed memory phases respectively) involved in monitoring, evaluating and maintaining the retrieval products. These findings indicate that episodic memory retrieval depends on a network involving medial temporal lobe and frontal, parietal and temporal neocortical structures. That network was involved in immediate and delayed memory retrieval and during the course of memory consolidation, with greater activation of some nodes (mobilization of more processing resources) for the delayed respect to the immediate retrieval condition.

Event-related potential changes due to early-onset Parkinson’s disease in parkin (PARK2) gene mutation carriers and non-carriers

ObjectiveTo investigate cognitive functions in non-demented patients with early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD), and to compare PARK2 gene mutation carriers and non-carriers by means of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). MethodsThe participants comprised patients with early-onset PD (EOPD) and healthy controls (HC). Patients with EOPD were divided into two groups as carriers of known pathogenic variants of PARK2 gene (EOPD-PC) and non-carriers of genes involved in familial PD (EOPD-NC). ERP data were collected during auditory oddball and visual continuous performance test (CPT). ResultsBoth EOPD groups (EOPD-PC and EOPD-NC) displayed reduced and delayed P3 in response to oddball target and CPT NoGo. CPT Go P3 was reduced in EOPD-NC but not in EOPD-PC. Oddball target N1 was reduced and P2 was enhanced in both EOPD-PC and EOPD-NC. In both cognitive tasks, RTs were prolonged and accuracy was lower in EOPD-PC and EOPD-NC. ConclusionsWe found several EOPD-related neurophysiologic changes, implying impairments in cognitive functions. Pairwise comparisons between EOPD-PC and EOPD-NC revealed no significant ERP marker. SignificanceIn this study, the confounding effect of normative aging was somewhat excluded compared with many previous studies. In contrast with the many oddball studies in non-demented PD, we clearly observed reduced and prolonged P3 in early-onset PD. Our NoGo P3 findings also contribute to the limited ERP research concerning response inhibition.

Using a Developmental Test and Electroencephalography to Examine Child Cognition and Its Predictors in Bangladesh (P13-024-19)

ObjectivesThe majority of global health studies use behavioural assessments to measure early child development. Few studies have examined neural indices of cognition using electroencephalography (EEG) in low-income settings. Using data from the Benefits and Risks of Iron Supplementation in Children (BRISC) trial, we examined cognitive development and neural indices of memory and attention in 11 month-old Bangladeshi children and their environmental, socio-demographic, and biological predictors. MethodsAt 8 months of age, 3300 children were randomized to iron syrup, multiple micronutrient supplementation, or placebo for 3 months. The main trial outcomes include child development measured using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID)-III, anthropometry, haemoglobin, morbidity, and iron indices. EEG is being conducted to measure event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in a random subset of 250 children at 11 months of age. ERPs are measured in response to auditory and visual stimuli, using roving oddball and attention orienting tasks. Generalized linear mixed models estimated the predictors of BSID-derived cognitive development and EEG-derived neural indices of memory and attention. Potential predictors include psychosocial stimulation, anthropometry, haemoglobin, socio-economic status, food security, sex, and parental education. Additionally, we examined correlations between the BSID cognitive scores and EEG-derived neural indices of cognition. ResultsPreliminary BSID data up to December 2018 indicates that 1749 children have completed measurements at 11 months of age. Psychosocial stimulation was significantly associated with BSID cognitive development scores. ERPs in children at 11 months of age are expected to be completed by May 2019 and relevant results will be presented. ConclusionsThis study is the first to acquire ERP data in children at 11 months of age in rural Bangladesh. Our findings will identify significant predictors of cognitive functioning measured using the BSID (a well-established developmental test) and using EEG (a sensitive neurophysiological approach) in young children in this setting. Results will indicate the agreement between child cognition outcomes using the BSID and EEG. Funding SourcesNHMRC and The University of Melbourne.

Spatiotemporal pattern of appraising social and emotional relevance: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

Social information is particularly relevant for the human species because of its direct link to guiding physiological responses and behavior. Accordingly, extant functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data suggest that social content may form a unique stimulus dimension. It remains largely unknown, however, how neural activity underlying social (versus nonsocial) information processing temporally unfolds, and how such social information appraisal may interact with the processing of other stimulus characteristics, particularly emotional meaning. Here, we presented complex visual scenes differing in both social (vs. nonsocial) and emotional relevance (positive, negative, neutral) intermixed with scrambled versions of these pictures to N = 24 healthy young adults. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to intact pictures were examined for gaining insight to the dynamics of appraisal of both dimensions, implemented within the brain. Our main finding is an early interaction between social and emotional relevance due to enhanced amplitudes of early ERP components to emotionally positive and neutral pictures of social compared to nonsocial content, presumably reflecting rapid allocation of attention and counteracting an overall negativity bias. Importantly, our ERP data show high similarity with previously observed fMRI data using the same stimuli, and source estimations located the ERP effects in overlapping occipitotemporal brain areas. Our novel data suggest that relevance detection may occur already as early as around 100 ms after stimulus onset and may combine relevance checks not only examining intrinsic pleasantness/emotional valence but also social content as a unique, highly relevant stimulus dimension.

Enhancing Natural Reward Responsiveness Among Opioid Users Predicts Chronic Pain Relief: EEG Analyses From a Trial of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement.

Although opioid-treated chronic pain patients evidence blunted responsiveness to natural rewards, focusing on naturally rewarding stimuli can produce analgesia in these patients. A prior randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrated that a social work intervention-Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE)-enhanced natural reward processing as indicated by event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The aim of the present study was to perform a secondary data analysis on ERPs collected in this RCT to explore whether improvements in electrocortical response to natural reward predicted pain relief. The sample for this secondary analysis included opioid-treated chronic pain patients with complete ERP data (N = 29). Participants were randomized to 8 weeks of MORE or a support group control condition, and ERPs to images representing naturally rewarding stimuli were measured before and after 8 weeks of treatment. We explored associations between changes in brain reward response, chronic pain symptoms, and pain coping. Increases in ERP reward response were significantly associated with decreased pain severity from pretreatment to posttreatment (β = -.48, p = .007) and improvements in pain catastrophizing (β = -.36, p = .05) and diverting attention as a means of pain coping (β = .38, p = .043). Increased ERP reward response predicted decreased pain interference by 3-month follow-up (β = -.37, p = .048). Chronic pain may be alleviated by enhancing brain response to natural rewards.

An Initial Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Word Processing in Preschoolers With Specific Language Impairment.

Previous behavioral studies have found deficits in lexical-semantic abilities in children with specific language impairment (SLI), including reduced depth and breadth of word knowledge. This study explored the neural correlates of early emerging familiar word processing in preschoolers with SLI and typical development. Fifteen preschoolers with typical development and 15 preschoolers with SLI were presented with pictures followed after a brief delay by an auditory label that did or did not match. Event-related brain potentials were time locked to the onset of the auditory labels. Children provided verbal judgments of whether the label matched the picture. There were no group differences in the accuracy of identifying when pictures and labels matched or mismatched. Event-related brain potential data revealed that mismatch trials elicited a robust N400 in both groups, with no group differences in mean amplitude or peak latency. However, the typically developing group demonstrated a more robust late positive component, elicited by mismatch trials. These initial findings indicate that lexical-semantic access of early acquired words, indexed by the N400, does not differ between preschoolers with SLI and typical development when highly familiar words are presented in isolation. However, the typically developing group demonstrated a more mature profile of postlexical reanalysis and integration, indexed by an emerging late positive component. The findings lay the necessary groundwork for better understanding processing of newly learned words in children with SLI.

Transient and sustained ERP activity related to feedback processing in the probabilistic selection task

Feedback processing represents a fundamental component of adaptive decision-making. Extensive research using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) has explored the medial frontal feedback negativity (FN), P3a, and P3b components in the context of feedback processing. Additionally, recent studies examining the neural correlates of feedback processing in a gambling task revealed transient and sustained ERP activity over the lateral frontal and posterior regions of the scalp. Consistent with the neuroimaging literature, source analysis has localized this ERP activity to the lateral and medial frontal cortex, as well as the temporal-occipital and medial occipital cortices. The current experiments examine whether the pattern of transient medial frontal and sustained lateral frontal and posterior ERP activity extend to a reinforcement learning task, and may thereby represent a general property of feedback processing. Consistent with a large literature, the ERP data revealed the FN-P3a and P3b. In addition, these data revealed sustained ERP activity over the lateral frontal and posterior regions. These findings contribute to our understanding of the temporal dynamics of feedback processing across broadly distributed cortical and subcortical networks that are sensitive to the valence and probability of positive and negative outcomes.

Social status level and dimension interactively influence person evaluations indexed by P300s

ABSTRACTFunctional neuroimaging research suggests that status-based evaluations may not solely depend on the level of social status but also on the conferred status dimension. However, no reports to date have studied how status level and dimension shape early person evaluations. To explore early status-based person evaluations, event-related brain potential data were collected from 29 participants while they indicated the status level and dimension of faces that had been previously trained to be associated with one of four status types: high moral, low moral, high financial, or low financial. Analysis of the P300 amplitude (previously implicated in social evaluation) revealed an interaction of status level and status dimension such that enhanced P300 amplitudes were observed in response to targets of high financial and low moral status relative to targets of low financial and high moral status. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of our current understanding of status-based evaluation and, more broadly, of the processes by which person knowledge may shape person perception and evaluation.

Dull to Social Acceptance Rather than Sensitivity to Social Ostracism in Interpersonal Interaction for Depression: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence from Cyberball Tasks.

Objectives: Impairments in interpersonal relationships in depression present as irritability, pessimism, and withdrawal, and play an important role in the onset and maintenance of the disorder. However, we know little about the neurological causes of this impaired interpersonal function. This study used the event-related brain potential (ERP) version of the Cyberball paradigm to investigate the emotions and neural activities in depressive patients during social inclusion and exclusion simultaneously to explore neuropsychological mechanisms.Methods: Electrophysiological data were recorded when 27 depressed patients and 23 healthy controls (HCs) performed a virtual ball tossing game (Cyberball) during which the participants believed they were playing with two other co-players over the internet. The Cyberball paradigm included two other conditions; inclusion during which participants received the ball with the same probability as the other players to experience a feeling of acceptance, and exclusion during which the participants experienced a feeling of ostracism when the other two players threw the ball with each other. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) was used as a baseline and after each block during the Cyberball to assess positive and negative effects. In addition, a brief Need-Threat Scale (NTS) was used to assess the fulfillment of basic needs of subjects after each block and 10 min after ostracism. Moreover, the relationship between the ERP data of depression and clinical symptoms was analyzed.Results: Exclusion compared to inclusion Cyberball caused a decrease in positive affect and an increase in negative affect. The group differences were only found in the positive affect. Moreover, patients reported a lower level of basic needs than did HCs after social inclusion, but a similar level of basic needs after social exclusion. At the electrophysiological level, patients showed decreased P3 amplitudes compared to HCs in social inclusion, and P3 amplitudes were borderline negatively correlated with their scores of anhedonia symptoms.Limitations: A limitation of our study was that the subjects' criteria were different.Conclusions: The behavioral and electrophysiological results indicated that the interpersonal problems in depressive patients were mainly due to deficits in processing the pleasurable social stimuli rather than aversive social cues.

Did I do that? The association between action video gaming experience and feedback processing in a gambling task

The association between action video game experience and the neural correlates of feedback processing related to positive and negative outcomes was examined in a virtual Blackjack game in combination with event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The behavioral data revealed that the frequency of various outcomes was not related to action gaming experience, indicating that the associations between action gaming experience and the ERP correlates of feedback processing are unlikely to result from variation in motivation or skill related to the Blackjack game between the gamers and non-gamers. The ERP data revealed that action gaming experience was not related to the processing of positive feedback related to wins, or negative feedback for losses that resulted from the joint action of the player and dealer. In contrast, action gaming experience was associated with a reduction in the amplitude of the ERPs elicited by negative feedback wherein the loss resulted from the direct action of the individual (i.e., busts). Together these data may indicate that action gaming is associated with a reduced sensitivity to feedback related to negative outcomes resulting from the direct action of the individual.

Out of the corner of my eye: Foveal semantic load modulates parafoveal processing in reading.

In 2 experiments, we examined the impact of foveal semantic expectancy and congruity on parafoveal word processing during reading. Experiment 1 utilized an eye-tracking gaze-contingent display change paradigm, and Experiment 2 measured event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in a modified flanker rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm. Eye-tracking and ERP data converged to reveal graded effects of foveal load on parafoveal processing. In Experiment 1, when word n was highly expected, and thus foveal load was low, there was a large parafoveal preview benefit to word n + 1. When word n was unexpected but still plausible, preview benefits to n + 1 were reduced in magnitude, and when word n was semantically incongruent, the preview benefit to n + 1 was unreliable in early pass measures. In Experiment 2, ERPs indicated that when word n was expected, and thus foveal load was low, readers successfully discriminated between valid and orthographically invalid previews during parafoveal perception. However, when word n was unexpected, parafoveal processing of n + 1 was reduced, and it was eliminated when word n was semantically incongruent. Taken together, these findings suggest that sentential context modulates the allocation of attention in the parafovea, such that covert allocation of attention to parafoveal processing is disrupted when foveal words are inconsistent with expectations based on various contextual constraints. (PsycINFO Database Record

Developing Brain Vital Signs: Initial Framework for Monitoring Brain Function Changes Over Time.

Clinical assessment of brain function relies heavily on indirect behavior-based tests. Unfortunately, behavior-based assessments are subjective and therefore susceptible to several confounding factors. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs), derived from electroencephalography (EEG), are often used to provide objective, physiological measures of brain function. Historically, ERPs have been characterized extensively within research settings, with limited but growing clinical applications. Over the past 20 years, we have developed clinical ERP applications for the evaluation of functional status following serious injury and/or disease. This work has identified an important gap: the need for a clinically accessible framework to evaluate ERP measures. Crucially, this enables baseline measures before brain dysfunction occurs, and might enable the routine collection of brain function metrics in the future much like blood pressure measures today. Here, we propose such a framework for extracting specific ERPs as potential “brain vital signs.” This framework enabled the translation/transformation of complex ERP data into accessible metrics of brain function for wider clinical utilization. To formalize the framework, three essential ERPs were selected as initial indicators: (1) the auditory N100 (Auditory sensation); (2) the auditory oddball P300 (Basic attention); and (3) the auditory speech processing N400 (Cognitive processing). First step validation was conducted on healthy younger and older adults (age range: 22–82 years). Results confirmed specific ERPs at the individual level (86.81–98.96%), verified predictable age-related differences (P300 latency delays in older adults, p < 0.05), and demonstrated successful linear transformation into the proposed brain vital sign (BVS) framework (basic attention latency sub-component of BVS framework reflects delays in older adults, p < 0.05). The findings represent an initial critical step in developing, extracting, and characterizing ERPs as vital signs, critical for subsequent evaluation of dysfunction in conditions like concussion and/or dementia.

The Association between Childhood Aerobic Fitness and Source Memory Function

Recent literature suggests that greater childhood aerobic fitness is associated with superior memory performance. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) that have a high temporal resolution combined with behavioral task performance might further increase our understanding of the association between fitness and memory function. PURPOSE: This study was design to provide new insights into the association between childhood aerobic fitness and memory processing using ERPs during a source memory task. METHODS: Lower-fit and higher-fit children (mean = 12.0 years, SD = 1.1) performed a source memory task consisting of two test phases: an item recognition test and a source recognition test. In the former test, participants were asked to make an old/new judgement, whereas in the latter test they were asked to discriminate whether a presented line drawing was seen in a particular color (target-old) or a different color (non-target-old) from the study phase, or new. We assessed early and late ERP episodic memory (EM) effects that reflected the retrieval of item content and source information, respectively. RESULTS: Contrary to our expectation, memory accuracy was significantly lower in the higher-fit group, relative to the lower-fit group, and this difference was disproportionately greater for source recognition trials. ERP data during the source test indicated that the higher-fit group had smaller amplitude in the early EM effect, relative to the lower-fit group, whereas during the item test, the higher-fit group had a smaller amplitude in the late EM effect relative to the lower-fit group. These ERP data could reflect more flexible, but less effective retrieval processing in higher-fit children. CONCLUSIONS: It has been suggested that familiarity contributes to associative memory. Therefore, flexible retrieval processing by higher-fit children might have resulted in unexpectedly lower memory accuracy. In conclusion, it is likely that the association between childhood fitness and memory performance could be either positive, or negative, depending on the nature of the cognitive task. Supported by a NIFS (National Institute of Fitness and Sports) project (1201200005).

Sustained attention in skilled and novice martial arts athletes: a study of event-related potentials and current sources.

Background. Research on sports has revealed that behavioral responses and event-related brain potentials (ERP) are better in expert than in novice athletes for sport-related tasks. Focused attention is essential for optimal athletic performance across different sports but mainly in combat disciplines. During combat, long periods of focused attention (i.e., sustained attention) are required for a good performance. Few investigations have reported effects of expertise on brain electrical activity and its neural generators during sport-unrelated attention tasks. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of expertise (i.e., skilled and novice martial arts athletes) analyzing the ERP during a sustained attention task (Continuous Performance Task; CPT) and the cortical three-dimensional distribution of current density, using the sLORETA technique. Methods. CPT consisted in an oddball-type paradigm presentation of five stimuli (different pointing arrows) where only one of them (an arrow pointing up right) required a motor response (i.e., target). CPT was administered to skilled and novice martial arts athletes while EEG were recorded. Amplitude ERP data from target and non-target stimuli were compared between groups. Subsequently, current source analysis for each ERP component was performed on each subject. sLORETA images were compared by condition and group using Statistical Non-Parametric Mapping analysis. Results. Skilled athletes showed significant amplitude differences between target and non-target conditions in early ERP components (P100 and P200) as opposed to the novice group; however, skilled athletes showed no significant effect of condition in N200 but novices did show a significant effect. Current source analysis showed greater differences in activations in skilled compared with novice athletes between conditions in the frontal (mainly in the Superior Frontal Gyrus and Medial Frontal Gyrus) and limbic (mainly in the Anterior Cingulate Gyrus) lobes. Discussion. These results are supported by previous findings regarding activation of neural structures that underlie sustained attention. Our findings may indicate a better-controlled attention in skilled athletes, which suggests that expertise can improve effectiveness in allocation of attentional resources during the first stages of cognitive processing during combat.

Culture and social judgments: the importance of culture in Japanese and European Canadians’ N400 and LPC processing of face lineup emotion judgments

Research has shown that East Asians tend to be more influenced by background social information than North Americans. To further examine these findings, we collected event-related brain potentials (ERP) during a face lineup emotion rating task where participants were asked to rate the emotions of central persons of five person emotion lineups. Lineups were either congruent, with all faces showing similar emotions, or incongruent, with central face emotions differing from background face emotions. The behavioral results replicated previous findings, showing that Japanese ratings were more influenced by background information than European Canadians. The ERP data showed incongruity effects, showing increased processing of socially incongruent brainwaves (than congruent lineups) in early (the N400) and late (the LPC) meaning-based processing of stimuli. Differences in processing were not seen between the two conditions for European Canadians. Furthermore, independence social orientation beliefs explained these incongruity effects: (1) Independence social orientation beliefs moderated the two cultures’ early processing patterns, showing a negative relationship between independence and European Canadians’ N400 incongruity effects, while East Asians generally processed social incongruence early, and (2) independence social orientation beliefs were negatively related with both groups’ later processing of social incongruence. The importance of culture in social judgments is discussed.

Cues, quantification, and agreement in language comprehension.

We investigated factors that affect the comprehension of subject-verb agreement in English, using quantification as a window into the relationship between morphosyntactic processes in language production and comprehension. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants read sentences with grammatical and ungrammatical verbs, in which the plurality of the subject noun phrase was either doubly marked (via overt plural quantification and morphological marking on the noun) or singly marked (via only plural morphology on the noun). Both acceptability judgments and the ERP data showed heightened sensitivity to agreement violations when quantification provided an additional cue to the grammatical number of the subject noun phrase, over and above plural morphology. This is consistent with models of grammatical comprehension that emphasize feature prediction in tandem with cue-based memory retrieval. Our results additionally contrast with those of prior studies that showed no effects of plural quantification on agreement in language production. These findings therefore highlight some nontrivial divergences in the cues and mechanisms supporting morphosyntactic processing in language production and comprehension.

Neurophysiological correlates of emotional directed-forgetting in persons with Schizophrenia: An event-related brain potential study

BackgroundRecent research has shown that patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) exhibit reduced directed forgetting (DF) for negative words, suggesting impaired ability to instantiate goal-directed inhibition in order to suppress a competing, emotion-driven responses (i.e., emotional memory enhancement). However, disrupted inhibition is not the only possible mechanism by which patients could manifest reduced emotional DF. Therefore, the primary objective of the current study was to use event-related brain potential (ERP) recordings to investigate alternative hypotheses. MethodsERPs were recorded while patients and controls completed an item-method DF paradigm using negative and neutral words. The N2 indexed goal-directed inhibition of to-be-forgotten items. The late positive potential (LPP) indexed emotional memory enhancement for negative study items. The P300 indexed selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered items. ResultsThe SCZ group exhibited a reduced DF effect overall, but this was not modulated by emotion. N2 amplitude at anterior sites was larger for forget versus remember cues in the control group only, but this effect was not modulated by emotion. LPP amplitude was greater for negative versus neutral words in both groups, independent of region. P300 amplitude at posterior sites was greater for remember versus forget cues in the control group only. DiscussionThese data suggest that reduced DF in SCZ may be due, in part, to both diminished goal-directed inhibition of to-be-forgotten items and reduced selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered items. However, these data do not support the hypothesis that goal-directed, inhibitory processes are disrupted by competing, emotion-driven processes in SCZ. Patients' ERP data also suggested that they did not exhibit disproportionately heightened encoding of emotional stimuli, nor did they have deficient selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered emotional items.

Electrophysiology of Sentence Processing in Aphasia: Prosodic Cues and Thematic Fit

Electrophysiology of Sentence Processing in Aphasia: Prosodic Cues and Thematic Fit

The ERP correlates of target checking are dependent upon the defining features of the prospective memory cues

In some contexts, prospective memory (PM) is thought to be dependent upon strategic monitoring of the environment for relevant cues. Behavioral data reveal that strategic monitoring is associated with slowing of response time for ongoing activity trials when a prospective component is added to the task, and functional imaging data reveal that monitoring is associated with recruitment of the anterior prefrontal cortex and other cortical structures. In the current study, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were used to examine the neural correlates of target checking, one process underlying strategic monitoring. Consistent with previous research the behavioral data revealed a Stimulus Specific Interference Effect, wherein slowing of response time varied depending upon whether PM cues were words or nonwords. The ERP data also revealed that the neural correlates of target checking were sensitive to the defining features of the PM cues (i.e., were a word or nonword). When PM cues were words, the effect of target checking was associated with variation in ERP amplitude beginning around 100ms after stimulus onset. In contrast, when PM cues were nonwords, the effect of target checking on the ERPs did not emerge until around 200ms after stimulus onset. These data provide support for the multi-process view of PM by demonstrating that the pattern of neural recruitment related to target checking is sensitive to the defining characteristics of the PM cues.

Beyond the FN: A spatio-temporal analysis of the neural correlates of feedback processing in a virtual Blackjack game

Studies using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to examine feedback processing in gambling tasks have focused almost exclusively on components elicited between 200 and 500ms after feedback over the frontal-central region of the scalp (i.e., P2, feedback negativity (FN), and P3a). In contrast, studies examining the functional neuroanatomy of feedback processing reveal activation in a distributed network that includes the anterior and posterior cingulate, the lateral and medial orbitofrontal cortex, the occipital cortex, and the basal ganglia. In the current study, we used ERPs in combination with spatial principal components-massive univariate analysis and distributed source analysis to examine the time course, topography, and neural generators of ERPs elicited in a virtual Blackjack game from 0 to 2000ms after feedback was delivered. The ERP data revealed the P2–FN–P3a complex, as well as, broadly distributed transient and slow wave activity that was sensitive to the magnitude and valence of an outcome. The ERPs reflected activation in the anterior and posterior cingulate, in addition to the occipital, temporal and medial frontal cortices. These data demonstrate that ERPs can provide valuable insight into the timing of neural recruitment within a distributed cortical network during the first two seconds of feedback processing.