Feedback-related Negativity Amplitude Research Articles

History of one\u2019s own performance modulates evaluative processing of another\u2019s action outcomes, but not vice versa

In action monitoring, i.e., evaluating an outcome of our behavior, a reward prediction error signal is calculated as the difference between actual and predicted outcomes and is used to adjust future behavior. Previous studies demonstrate that this signal, which is reflected by an event-related brain potential called feedback-related negativity (FRN), occurs in response to not only one's own outcomes, but also those of others. However, it is still unknown if predictions of different actors' performance interact with each other. Thus, we investigated how predictions from one’s own and another’s performance history affect each other by manipulating the task difficulty for participants themselves and their partners independently. Pairs of participants performed a time estimation task, randomly switching the roles of actor and observer from trial to trial. Results show that the history of the other’s performance did not modulate the amplitude of the FRN for the evaluation of one’s own outcomes. In contrast, the amplitude of the observer FRN for the other’s outcomes differed according to the frequency of one’s own action outcomes. In conclusion, the monitoring system tracks the histories of one’s own and observed outcomes separately and considers information related to one’s own action outcomes to be more important.

Strategy Development and Feedback Processing During Complex Category Learning.

In this study, 38 young adults participated in a probabilistic A/B prototype category learning task under observational and feedback-based conditions. The study compared learning success (testing accuracy) and strategy use (multi-cue vs. single feature vs. random pattern) between training conditions. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3a event related potentials were measured to explore the relationships between feedback processing and strategy use under a probabilistic paradigm. A greater number of participants were found to utilize an optimal, multi-cue strategy following feedback-based training than observational training, adding to the body of research suggesting that feedback can influence learning approach. There was a significant interaction between training phase and strategy on FRN amplitude. Specifically, participants who used a strategy in which category membership was determined by a single feature (single feature strategy) exhibited a significant decrease in FRN amplitude from early training to late training, perhaps due to reduced utilization of feedback or reduced prediction error. There were no significant main or interaction effects between valence, training phase, or strategy on P3a amplitude. Findings are consistent with prior research suggesting that learners vary in their approach to learning and that training method influences learning. Findings also suggest that measures of feedback processing during probabilistic category learning may reflect changes in feedback utilization and may further illuminate differences among individual learners.

Self–other discrepancies in electrophysiological response to outcome evaluation in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task

The topic of self-other differences in decision-making has gained considerable attention in recent years. Despite a broad range of behavior studies that have shown self-other discrepancy in decision-making, few neuroimaging studies with event-related potentials (ERPs) have directly compared decisions made for oneself with those made for others. It remains controversial whether self-other differences of outcome evaluations in gambling tasks can also be shown in brain potentials. In this study, we used event-related potentials with a Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) paradigm, a sequential, dynamic decision-making task to examine the effects of self-other differences on evaluation outcome in brain activity. Feedback Related Negativity (FRN) and P300 components were analyzed with respect to feedback valence (win vs. loss) and beneficiary (self vs. stranger). The ERP results showed that when making decisions for oneself, the negative outcome feedback evoked a larger P300 compared to making decisions for a stranger. However, there was no significant effect of self-other differences when the outcome feedback was positive. In contrast, regardless of whether the feedback was positive or negative, the FRN amplitude was insensitive to the self-other manipulation. Furthermore, we found that both components were modulated by the valence of the feedback. More pronounced FRN and P300 were induced when the feedback was negative, relative to when the feedback was positive. Our findings indicate that brain responses to outcome evaluation on the BART may be divided into an early semi-automatic processing stage and a later cognitive appraisal stage and that the self-other differences in sequential, dynamic decision-making tasks under uncertainty mainly affect the allocation of attention resources in the late cognitive processing stage.

Hypersensitivity to negative feedback during dynamic risky-decision making in major depressive disorder: An event-related potential study

BackgroundPatients with major depressive disorder (MDD) exhibit a diminished ability to think or concentrate, indecisiveness, and altered sensitivity to reward and punishment. These impairments can influence complex risk-related decision-making in dynamic environments. The neurophysiological mechanisms mediating MDD effects on decision-making behavior are not well understood. MethodsPatients with MDD (N=50) and healthy controls (HC, N=40) were enrolled. They completed a series of psychometric tests. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the performance of a well-validated modified version of Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). ResultsBART behavior data were similar across the two groups except the MDD patients showed more stability of risk aversion. Neurophysiologically, BART losses generated larger P3 amplitudes than wins, and MDD patients had larger feedback-related negativity (FRN) components than HCs in response to negative feedback (losses). Greater FRN amplitudes in response to losses correlated with higher levels of depressiveness, psychological pain, and anhedonia. A longer FRN latency in MDD patients was associated with more severe suicidal ideation. LimitationsThe findings are based on cross-sectional data, which are not powerful enough to make causal inferences. ConclusionMDD patients exhibit enhanced FRNs in the frontocentral region after receiving negative feedback in a risky decision-making task. FRN magnitude is associated with depressive symptom severity. Punishment hypersensitivity may contribute to the maintenance of depressive symptoms in MDD patients, and FRN may be a useful index of such hypersensitivity.

The cumulative effect of positive and negative feedback on emotional experience.

The cumulative effect of positive or negative feedback on subsequent emotional experiences remains unclear. Elucidating this effect could help individuals to better understand and accept the change in emotional experience, irrespective of when they or others receive consecutive positive or negative feedback. This study aimed to examine this effect on 37 participants using self-reported pleasantness and event-related potential data as indicators. After completing each trial, the participants received predetermined false feedback; they were then assessed on a nine-point pleasantness scale. There were 12 false feedback conditions categorized into three valence types. The positive type consisted of three consecutive positive feedbacks and a fourth medium feedback; the medium type contained four consecutive medium feedbacks; the negative type consisted of three consecutive negative feedbacks and a fourth medium feedback. We abbreviated medium false feedback after three positive, medium, and negative false feedbacks as 3 pm, 3 mm, and 3 nm, respectively. The results showed that the score of self-reported pleasantness of 3mm was significantly lower than that of 3 pm and higher than that of 3 nm. The feedback-related negativity amplitude of 3 pm was significantly greater than that of 3 mm and 3 nm, and the late-positive potential amplitude of 3 nm was significantly greater than that of 3 pm and 3 mm. We found that individuals experienced medium feedback more positively and negatively after continuous positive and negative feedback, respectively. Our findings suggest that individuals should seek continuous positive feedback and avoid continuous negative feedback; this strategy may contribute to increased positive emotional experiences in the future.

I, robot: depression plays different roles in human\u2013human and human\u2013robot interactions

Socially engaging robots have been increasingly applied to alleviate depressive symptoms and to improve the quality of social life among different populations. Seeing that depression negatively influences social reward processing in everyday interaction, we investigate this influence during simulated interactions with humans or robots. In this study, 35 participants with mild depression and 35 controls (all from nonclinical populations) finished the social incentive delay task with event-related potential recording, in which they received performance feedback from other persons or from a robot. Compared to the controls, the mild depressive symptom (MDS) group represented abnormalities of social reward processing in the human feedback condition: first, the MDS group showed a lower hit rate and a smaller contingent-negative variation (correlated with each other) during reward anticipation; second, depression level modulated both the early phase (indexed by the feedback-related negativity (FRN)) and the late phase (indexed by the P3) of reward consumption. In contrast, the effect of depression was evident only on FRN amplitude in the robot feedback condition. We suggest that compared to human–human interaction, the rewarding properties of human–robot interaction are less likely to be affected by depression. These findings have implications for the utilization of robot-assisted intervention in clinical practice.

Altered behavioral and electrophysiological responses to social fairness in manic and euthymic patients with bipolar disorder

BackgroundIndividuals with bipolar disorder show mood instability, including heightened anger and impulsivity. The Ultimatum Game (UG) is a tool used to evaluate emotional and social decision‐making strategies. We investigated behavioral and electrophysiological responses to subjectively fair or unfair offers in the UG in patients with bipolar I disorder.MethodsTwenty‐four manic patients, 20 euthymic patients, and 30 healthy controls participated in this study. We analyzed their behaviors and collected electroencephalography data with which to analyze feedback‐related negativity (FRN) as they played in the UG as responders.ResultsManic patients exhibited significantly higher rejection rates for unfair offers than euthymic patients and healthy controls. Healthy individuals exhibited a greater (i.e., more negative) FRN amplitude in response to unfair offers than to fair offers, whereas euthymic patients exhibited a greater FRN amplitude in response to fair offers compared with unfair offers. Manic patients exhibited no difference in FRN amplitudes between fair and unfair offers.ConclusionsThe current data suggest that different behavioral responses and FRN amplitude patterns can be associated with characteristic manifestations of mood instability in manic bipolar patients. In addition, electrophysiological alterations in response to unfair offers may be a trait abnormality independent of mood state.

Less Expectation, Less Pain: Low Wealth Alleviates Sense of Unfairness.

Objective wealth plays an important role in social interaction and economic decision making. Previous studies indicate that objective wealth of others may influence the way we participate in resources allocation. However, the effect of objective wealth on responses to fairness-related resource distribution is far from clear, as are the underlying neural processes. To address this issue, we dynamically manipulated proposers’ objective wealth and analyzed participants’ behavior as responders in a modified Ultimatum Game, during which event-related potentials were recorded. Behavioral results showed that participants were prone to reject unfair proposals although that rejection would reduce their own benefit. Importantly, participants were more likely to accept unfair offers from proposers with low objective wealth than from proposers with high objective wealth, with a drastic increase in acceptance rates of unfair offers from 32.79 to 50.59%. Further electrophysiological results showed that there was significantly enhanced feedback-related negativity amplitude toward proposers with high (relative to low) objective wealth for unfair offers. Furthermore, the late frontal negativity amplitude was larger for all the conditions which are not high-fair, which might be the only option that did not elicit any ambiguity. These findings suggest a strong role of proposers’ objective wealth in modulating responders’ behavioral and neural responses to fairness.

Self-reported daily sleep quality modulates the impact of the framing effect on outcome evaluation in decision-making under uncertainty: An ERP study

A growing body of research has largely confirmed and supported the idea that experimental sleep loss, such as sleep deprivation or sleep restriction, could affect individuals' risk-taking behavior and brain activity. However, whether self-reported sleep quality resulting from daily life modulates how feedback is evaluated during decision-making is still unclear. In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) with a Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) to investigate how self-reported daily sleep quality modulates the brain's response to feedback from decision-making in the gain and loss frames. Behavioral data showed an increased aversion to uncertainty in the gain frame relative to the loss frame for individuals with higher sleep quality. However, this was not true for individuals with lower voluntary sleep quality. Similarly, the ERP data demonstrated that individuals with lower self-reported daily sleep quality displayed no changes in feedback-related negativity (FRN) in response to outcomes from decision-making in the gain and loss frames; however, individuals with higher self-reported daily sleep quality showed a greater FRN in response to decision-making in the gain frame than that in the loss frame. A Pearson correlation analysis showed that self-reported daily sleep quality was positively related to the variance of the FRN amplitude in response to the gain and loss frames. These findings suggest that framing effects on decision-making under uncertainty may depend on self-reported daily sleep quality and that the effects disappear when the sleep quality declines.

Abnormal negative feedback processing in individuals with autistic traits in the Iowa gambling task: Evidence from behavior and event-related potentials

Value-based decision making plays an important role in social interaction. Previous studies have reported that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit deficits in terms of decision making. However, it is still unknown clearly whether individuals with high autistic traits within nonclinical populations employ abnormal neural substrates in value-based decision-making. To explore this issue, we investigated value-based decision making and its neural substrates in individuals with high and low autistic traits within a typically developing population who completed the revised Iowa gambling task (IGT) based on measurements of event-related potentials (ERPs). The IGT net scores were significantly lower in the group with high autistic traits than the group with low autistic traits in the fifth and sixth blocks. The ERP results showed that the feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitude in individuals with high autistic traits allowed slight discrimination between positive and negative feedback in the low-risk option. The event-related spectral perturbations (ERSPs) and inter-trial coherence (ITC) of the theta-band frequency were also lower in the group with high autistic traits than the group with low autistic traits in the loss low-risk option. The results obtained in this study indicate that individuals with high autistic traits exhibit an unusual negative feedback process and relevant neural substrate. The FRN amplitude and theta-band oscillation may comprise a neural index of abnormal decision-making processes in individuals with high autistic traits. This study of a small sample may be considered an important step toward a more comprehensive understanding of the autism “spectrum” within a nonclinical population based on cognitive neuroscience.

Task Feedback Processing Differs Between Young and Older Adults in Visuomotor Rotation Learning Despite Similar Initial Adaptation and Savings

Ageing has been suggested to affect sensorimotor adaptation by impairing explicit strategy use. Here we recorded electrophysiological (EEG) responses during visuomotor rotation in both young (n = 24) and older adults (n = 25), to investigate the neural processes that underpin putative age-related effects on adaptation. We measured the feedback related negativity (FRN) and the P3 in response to task-feedback, as electrophysiological markers of task error processing and outcome evaluation. The two age groups adapted similarly and showed comparable after effects and savings when re-exposed to the same perturbation several days after the initial session. Older adults, however, had less distinct EEG responses (i.e., reduced FRN amplitudes) to negative and positive task feedback. The P3 did not differ between age groups. Both young and older adults also showed a sustained late positivity following task feedback. Measured at the frontal electrode Fz, this sustained activity was negatively associated with both the amount of voluntary disengagement of explicit strategy and savings. In conclusion, despite preserved task performance, we find clear differences in neural responses to errors in older people, which suggests that there is a fundamental decline in this aspect of sensorimotor brain function with age.

How do different kinds of incidental emotions influence risk decision making?

Incidental emotions, which are irrelevant to the ongoing decision, play a significant role in decision-making processes. In this study, we investigated the influence of specific incidental emotions on behavioral, psychological, and electrophysiological responses during the process of decision making. Participants finished a forced-choice gambling task, during which incidental emotions (anger/fear/happiness) were elicited by recalling emotional experiences. Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) data were recorded in the experiment. Behavioral results showed that risk preference was weaker in the fearful condition than in the angry and happy conditions, but emotional feelings to outcome feedback were not influenced by incidental emotions. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitude was larger in the fearful condition than in the angry, happy, and neutral conditions for large outcomes, whereas there was no difference between the four conditions for small outcomes. In addition, the influence of outcome magnitude (small/large) on the P3 amplitude was stronger in the fearful condition than in the angry, happy, and neutral conditions. We suggest that incidental fear elicits risk-avoidant behavior (manifested in behavioral choices), stronger motivation (manifested in the FRN amplitude) and cognitive resources (manifested in the P3 amplitude) for risky outcomes of decision making unconsciously (indicated by unchanged subjective emotional experiences). The current findings have expanded our understanding of the role of specific incidental emotions in decision making.

Exploring the valence-framing effect: Gain frame enhances behavioral and brain sensitivity to the failure of decision-making under uncertainty

The framing effect, which is one of the cognitive biases, can play a major role in changing preferences and the decision-making process. However, whether the gain and loss frames modulate the evaluation of feedback during decision-making is still unclear. In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) with a Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) paradigm to examine the effects of a gain and loss frame on the evaluation of feedback during the decision-making process of the brain. Behavioral data showed an increased uncertainty-aversion, especially after receiving negative feedback (balloon explosion) during the completion of the BART in the gain frame relative to the loss frame. The ERP data demonstrated a more negative feedback-related negativity (FRN) after receiving negative feedback in the gain frame relative to the loss frame. Additionally, the FRN amplitude elicited by the negative feedback correlated with the future decision-making behavior in both the gain and loss frames. These findings demonstrated that, in comparison to the loss frame, the gain frame increased behavior and brain sensitivity to the failure of decision-making under uncertainty.

Smaller Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) Reflects the Risky Decision-Making Deficits of Methamphetamine Dependent Individuals.

Methamphetamine (MA) chronic users show risky decision-making deficits. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these deficits remain unclear. A case-control study was conducted to understand how MA users and healthy controls differ in electrophysiological responses associated with series decision-making. Electroencephalography of 31 MA users and 27 healthy controls was recorded when they performed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task involving risky decision-making with uncertain gain or loss. Feedback-related negativity (FRN) was measured and their association with their risky decision-making and impulsivity were examined. Compared to healthy controls, MA users showed smaller peak FRN amplitudes in fronto-central electrodes (F (1, 56) =4.559, p=0.037), and the attenuated peak FRN amplitudes correlated with more risk-taking behavior (r=0.48, p=0.012). Besides, MA users exhibited later FRN (F (1, 56) = 7.561, p=0.008) and earlier P300 (F (1, 56) = 3.582, p = 0.041) compared to healthy controls in fronto-central electrodes, which were correlated with higher score of impulsivity. These findings provided further evidence that MA users showed insensitivity to negative feedback in risky decision-making. FRN might be a promising biomarker of dependence.

Neural correlates of negative expectancy and impaired social feedback processing in social anxiety.

Social anxiety has been associated with abnormalities in cognitive processing in the literature, manifesting as various cognitive biases. To what extent these biases interrupt social interactions remains largely unclear. This study used the Social Judgment Paradigm that could separate the expectation and experience stages of social feedback processing. Event-related potentials (ERPs) in these two stages were recorded to detect the effect of social anxiety that might not be reflected by behavioral data. Participants were divided into two groups according to their social anxiety level. Participants in the high social anxiety (HSA) group were more likely to predict that they would be socially rejected by peers than did their low social anxiety (LSA) counterparts (i.e. the control group). Compared to the ERP data of the LSA group, the HSA group showed: (a) a larger P1 component to social cues (peer faces) prior to social feedback presentation, possibly indicating an attention bias; (b) a difference in feedback-related negativity amplitude between unexpected social acceptance and unexpected social rejection, possibly indicating an expectancy bias; and (c) a diminished sensitivity of the P3 amplitude to social feedback valence (be accepted/be rejected), possibly indicating an experience bias. These results could help understand the cognitive mechanisms that comprise and maintain social anxiety.

A tradeoff relationship between internal monitoring and external feedback during the dynamic process of reinforcement learning

Effective behavior monitoring, including internal monitoring/error detection and external monitoring/feedback, is very pivotal for reinforcement learning. However, less attention has been paid to internal monitoring and the dynamic learning performance in reinforcement learning, and there is still a heated debate on which kind of external feedback is relied on in the reinforcement learning. In order to address these questions, an adaption probabilistic selection task was used to examine the effect of the internal monitoring, external feedback and the relationship between them for approach learners and avoidance learners during dynamic learning process of reinforcement learning and behavior adaption. Error-related negativity (ERN), feedback-related negativity (FRN) and feedback-related P300 are three ERPs components, which can be used as the indexes of internal monitoring, external feedback and behavior adaption. For our results, the ERN effect of avoidance learners become large in block 3, which is earlier than approach learners (block 4). This phenomenon suggests that avoidance learners learned faster than approach learners. In addition, the FRN amplitude of avoidance learners in block 4 was significantly smaller than the other three blocks. The aforementioned results demonstrated a tradeoff relationship between the ERN and FRN effects.

Aberrant reward prediction errors in young adult at-risk alcohol users.

Previous studies suggest that individuals with substance use disorder have abnormally large responses to unexpected outcomes (reward prediction errors [RPEs]). However, there is much less information on RPE in individuals at risk of alcohol misuse, prior to neurobiological adaptations that might result from sustained alcohol use. Here, participants (mean age 23.77 years, range 18-32 years) performed the electrophysiological monetary incentive delay task. This task involved responding to a target stimulus following reward incentive cues to win, or avoid losing, the cued reward while brain activity was recorded under 64-channel EEG. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was used to quantify at-risk alcohol use, with high (n = 22, mean AUDIT score: 13.82) and low (n = 22, mean AUDIT score: 5.77) alcohol use groups. Trial-by-trial RPEs were estimated using a Rescorla-Wagner reinforcement model based on behavioral data. A single-trial analysis revealed that the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and feedback P3 (fb-P3) event-related potential components were significantly modulated by RPEs. There was increased RPE-related fb-P3 amplitude for those in the high alcohol use group. Next, the mean amplitude of ERPs elicited by positive and negative RPEs were compared between groups. We found that high alcohol use participants had attenuated FRN amplitude in contrast with low alcohol use participants for both positive and negative RPEs but enhanced fb-P3 for both positive and negative RPE. These results, with differences in RPE in an at-risk group, suggest that RPE a potential vulnerability marker for alcohol use disorder.

Moral judgment modulates fairness consideration in the early outcome evaluation stage

Morality, concern for the welfare of others, is an important criterion of how individuals treat others, including justice, fairness, and rights. Moral judgment is the process of evaluating the behavior of others and oneself according to social norms. Morality might affect social cooperation with others by entailing the belief that someone should be rewarded or punished. The ultimatum game is a classic paradigm that can be used to study the fairness behavior of social cooperation. Previous studies have shown that some social factors (e.g., social distance, social exclusion, and social evaluation) influence fairness behavior in the ultimatum game. Using the event-related potential (ERP) technique to examine the neural basis of the ultimatum game, studies found that feedback-related negativity (FRN) was modulated by social factors. This effect indicates that the influence of social factors mainly appears in the early stage of outcome evaluation. However, the influence of moral judgment on social cooperation and its neural mechanism remains unclear. The present study focused on whether moral judgment would affect fairness consideration in the early outcome evaluation stage. For this purpose, we used moral sentences within the ultimatum game to assess the influence of moral judgment and fairness of offers on decision-making. A total of 25 participants who acted as respondents completed the ultimatum game with blood donors, murderers, and unidentified individuals as proposers. A moral sentence (e.g., He is a blood donor) was given as a reminder of the moral identity of the players before each round. Participants were told that other players would gain ￥50, and proposers would make an allocation offer. There were five types of allocation offers: ￥5, ￥10, ￥15, ￥20 or ￥25. Participants were asked to accept or reject the offers. At the same time, the ERP was locked to the onset of the offers. The acceptance rate of each offer was included in the behavioral data. The dependent variable was the acceptance rate of the five allocation offers and moral primes were the independent variable when performing one-way ANOVAs. Regarding ERP data, ￥5 and ￥10 were considered as unfair offers and ￥20 and ￥25 as fair offers in order to analyze the amplitudes of FRN and P300. Two-way repeated measures ANOVAs (moral judgment, three levels; offer fairness, two levels) were performed to compare ERP data. Behavioral results showed that the acceptance rate of unfair offers from blood donors was significantly higher than that of murderers. Furthermore, the acceptance rate of fair offers from murderers was significantly lower than that of blood donors and unidentified individuals. ERP results revealed that the FRN amplitude was more negative-going in response to unfair than to fair offers. The fairness of offers modulated FRN amplitude only regarding blood donors, but not for murderers and unidentified individual conditions. P300 was larger for fair offers compared to unfair offers and was not affected by moral judgment. These results indicate that when moral judgment conflicts with the fairness criterion, individuals might rely on moral judgment to make decisions. People may have a higher expectation of fairness from individuals with high moral standards, while unfair behaviors could induce strong negative emotions. FRN represents unfair behaviors that violate social norms and shows that the early outcome evaluation stage is also modulated by moral judgment, while the late stage is independent of moral judgment.

Paying out one versus paying out all trials and the decrease in behavioral and brain activity in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task.

Both pay out for all the trials (pay-all) and pay out for only one randomly selected trial (pay-one), are widely used in economics experiments to elicit choices from study participants. However, whether pay-all and pay-one payments modulate risk-taking and decision-making in the same manner remains controversial. In the present study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) with the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) to investigate the effects of the pay-all and pay-one payments on dynamic sequential decision-making behavior under uncertainty and brain activity. Behavioral data showed an increased uncertainty aversion, especially after negative feedback (balloon explosion) during the BART in the pay-all condition, as compared to those in the pay-one condition. The ERP data demonstrated a larger feedback-related negativity (FRN) in response to the balloons that exploded during decision-making in the pay-all condition, as compared to those in the pay-one condition. In addition, in the pay-all condition, the FRN amplitude elicited by the explosion of the balloon correlated with the future decision-making behavior, although this correlation was not observed in the pay-one condition. In contrast, the P300 component was unresponsive to payment method manipulation. These findings demonstrate the differential effects of the pay-all versus the pay-one payments on decision-making behavior under uncertainty and brain activity, suggesting that the payment method plays an important role in dynamic decision-making studies.

An Event-Related Potential Study of Decision-Making and Feedback Utilization in Female College Students Who Binge Drink.

This study investigated the ability to use feedback for decision-making in female college students who binge drink (BD) using the iowa gambling task (IGT) and event-related potentials (ERPs). Twenty-seven binge drinkers and 23 non-binge drinkers (non-BD) were identified based on scores on the Korean version of the Alcohol Use Disorder Test and the Alcohol Use Questionnaire. The IGT consists of four cards, including two cards that result in a net loss, with large immediate gains but greater losses in the long term, and two cards that result in a net gain, with small immediate gains but reduced losses in the long term. Participants were required to choose one card at a time to maximize profit until the end of the task while avoiding losses. The BD group showed a significantly lower total net score than the non-BD group, indicating that the BD group chose more disadvantageous cards. The BD group showed significantly smaller ΔFRN amplitudes [difference in amplitudes of feedback-related negativity (FRN) between gain and loss feedback] but not in P3 amplitudes. Additionally, ΔFRN amplitudes in the fronto-central area were positively correlated with the total net score and net scores for sectors 4 and 5. Thus, total net scores and later performance on the IGT increased as ΔFRN amplitudes from the fronto-central area increased. FRN is known to reflect early feedback evaluation employing a bottom-up mechanism, whereas P3 is known to reflect late feedback processing and allocation of attentional resources using a top-down mechanism. These results indicate that college students who binge drink have deficits in early evaluation of positive or negative feedback and that this deficit may be related to decision-making deficits.