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Auditory event-related potentials over medial frontal electrodes express both negative and positive prediction errors
Yi-Fang Hsu1, Jarmo A Hämäläinen2, Karolina Moutsopoulou3
1Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 75006 Paris, France; CNRS (Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, UMR 8242), 75006 Paris, France; Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling, National Taiwan Normal University, 10610 Taipei, Taiwan.
Medial frontal brain signals reflect general prediction errors, not just those related to rewards. This finding suggests these signals broadly track unexpected outcomes, regardless of reward valence.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Decision Making
Background:
- Medial frontal cortex (MFC) activation is traditionally linked to reward prediction errors.
- Emerging evidence suggests MFC activity may signal prediction errors more broadly.
- The sensitivity of MFC signals to the valence (positive/negative) of prediction errors remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether medial frontal event-related potentials (ERPs) are sensitive to the valence of prediction errors.
- To determine if MFC signals encode general prediction errors irrespective of reward magnitude or confirmation.
Main Methods:
- Orthogonal manipulation of expectation magnitude (large/small) and expectation confirmation (fulfilled/violated) in a reward-based target detection task.
- Analysis of medial frontal event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to expected and unexpected outcomes.
Main Results:
- Medial frontal ERPs showed a more negative-going deflection for unexpected outcomes compared to expected outcomes.
- This effect was consistent regardless of whether a large or small reward was initially expected.
- No significant difference in ERPs was observed based on the valence of the prediction error (e.g., larger negative deflection for unexpected large reward vs. unexpected small reward).
Conclusions:
- Medial frontal ERPs signal the occurrence of prediction errors in general, independent of their valence.
- These findings support a broader role for MFC activity in tracking deviations from expectation across various contexts.
- The MFC may serve as a general-purpose prediction error detection system.
