Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Error-preceding brain activity: robustness, temporal dynamics, and boundary conditions.

Greg Hajcak1, Sander Nieuwenhuis, K Richard Ridderinkhof

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA. hajcak@psych.udel.edu

Biological Psychology
|September 20, 2005
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

A psychosocial manipulation of the error-related negativity does not transfer to the balance N1: A randomized controlled trial in anxious children.

Journal of affective disorders·2026
Same author

The Error-Related Negativity (ERN) and the Reward Positivity (RewP) Event-Related Potentials: Comparison Between a Dry Electrode and a Gel-Based EEG System.

Psychophysiology·2026
Same author

Reliability of Electrophysiological Measures of Cognitive Control and Sociodemographic Correlates in a Large Adolescent and Emerging Adult Cohort.

Psychophysiology·2026
Same author

Age-Related Differences in Response Time Across Adolescence Reflect Premotor, but Not Motor, Processing Speed.

Psychophysiology·2026
Same author

Disaggregation of between- and within-subject effects of internalizing symptoms on P300 amplitude during adolescence.

Development and psychopathology·2026
Same author

Error-Related Brain Activity Moderates the Association Between Interpersonal Stressor Exposure and Both Current and Future Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescent Girls.

Developmental psychobiology·2026

Researchers found a brain signal, the error-preceding positivity (EPP), that appears before errors. This signal may indicate the brain disengaging its monitoring system prior to mistakes.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Psychophysiology

Background:

  • A prior study identified an error-preceding positivity (EPP), a brain signal observed in response-locked event-related potentials (ERPs) on trials before errors.
  • This EPP was hypothesized to reflect the response monitoring system disengaging prior to error commission.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To replicate the initial finding of the EPP.
  • To investigate the conditions influencing the observability of the EPP.
  • To explore the relationship between EPP and action monitoring.

Main Methods:

  • Three studies were conducted using response-locked event-related potentials (ERPs).
  • Study 1 compared ERPs on error-preceding trials to RT-matched correct-preceding trials.
  • Studies 2 and 3 utilized various tasks and extended inter-trial intervals to assess EPP robustness.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • The EPP was successfully replicated, showing enhanced positivity on error-preceding trials compared to correct trials.
  • The observed positivity was not attributable to stimulus-related processing differences.
  • Similar EPP-like modulations were found across different tasks and longer inter-trial intervals, though onset and duration varied.
  • The modulation was specific to error-1 trials, not observed on error-2 or error+1 trials.

Conclusions:

  • The error-preceding positivity (EPP) is a replicable phenomenon in response-locked ERPs.
  • The EPP appears to reflect a specific neural event preceding errors, potentially related to response monitoring system disengagement.
  • The EPP's presence is robust across various tasks and timing conditions, suggesting its significance in action monitoring.