Event-related potentials elicited by errors during the stop-signal task. II: human effector-specific error responses.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Primate Research

Background:

• Performance monitoring research in humans and primates has yielded valuable insights but lacks cross-species generalizability due to methodological differences.
• A key obstacle is the variation in behavioral responses (e.g., oculomotor vs. skeletomotor) and tasks across species, leaving uncertainty about the neural basis of error detection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether performance-monitoring mechanisms engage distinct neural circuitry for oculomotor versus skeletomotor responses in humans.
• To compare human error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) for saccadic eye movements versus manual responses within the same task.
• To establish cross-species homology of error event-related potentials (ERPs) by comparing human findings to prior nonhuman primate research.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a stop-signal task in humans, comparing electroencephalography (EEG) data elicited by saccadic eye movements versus manual responses.
• Analyzed the characteristics of the human error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe), including duration, scalp distribution, and estimated neural sources.
• Paralleled the human study with previous research on nonhuman primates performing a similar saccadic stop-signal task.

Main Results:

• The human saccadic ERN showed a prolonged duration, broader frontomedial voltage distribution, and different neural source estimates compared to the manual ERN.
• The human saccadic Pe exhibited a frontomedial distribution with sources in the supplementary motor area and rostral anterior cingulate cortex.
• The manual Pe displayed a posterior scalp distribution, with potential origins in the superior parietal lobule, contrasting with the saccadic Pe.

Conclusions:

• Findings suggest that performance-monitoring mechanisms, as indexed by ERN/Pe, involve distinct neural circuitry depending on the motor response type (saccadic vs. manual).
• The study demonstrates a cross-species homology of error event-related potentials (ERPs) between humans and nonhuman primates.
• These results provide a foundation for precisely localizing the neural sources of performance-monitoring ERPs across species.