Temporospatial dissociation of Pe subcomponents for perceived and unperceived errors

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychophysiology
• Brain Sciences

Background:

• Performance monitoring involves detecting errors, often reflected in event-related potentials (ERPs).
• Key ERP components include the error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe).
• Error awareness primarily modulates the Pe, while the ERN appears independent of conscious error detection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between ERN and Pe and error awareness.
• To examine error processing in a visual discrimination task where errors stem from perceptual difficulty, not impulsivity.
• To analyze temporospatial subcomponents of the Pe using principal component analysis (PCA) for differential relations to error awareness.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a visual size discrimination task.
• Recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to analyze brain responses.
• Applied temporospatial principal component analysis (PCA) to deconstruct ERP components.

Main Results:

• Confirmed previous findings: Pe was significantly affected by error awareness, whereas ERN was not.
• Correct responses perceived as errors showed larger correct-related negativity (CRN) and Pe amplitudes.
• PCA revealed a centro-parietal positivity factor (Pe) that significantly varied with error awareness.
• A central topography factor (ERN/CRN) varied with response correctness and subjective error perception.

Conclusions:

• The error awareness effect is specifically linked to the centro-parietal subcomponent of the Pe.
• This Pe subcomponent is sensitive to the salience of an error.
• Error salience may secondarily trigger conscious error awareness.