The NIMH Research Domain Criteria initiative and error-related brain activity

Research on the neural response to errors has an important role in the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project, since it is likely to link psychopathology to the dysfunction of neural systems underlying basic behavioral functions, with the error-related negativity (ERN) appearing as a unit of measurement in three RDoC domains. A recent report builds on previous research by examining the ERN as a measure of the sustained threat construct and providing evidence that the ERN may reflect sensitivity more specifically to endogenous threat. Data from 515 adolescent females indicate that the ERN was enlarged primarily in older adolescents with self-reported checking behaviors, although it was blunted in adolescents with depressive symptoms regardless of age. Potential future studies for replicating and extending the research on the ERN and obsessive-compulsive (OC) behaviors are discussed, including studies that more fully characterize OC symptom dimensions, studies that integrate other measures of error-related brain activity and use computational modeling, studies that combine longitudinal, family, and molecular genetic measures, and interventional studies that specifically modulate error-related brain activity in individuals with OC behaviors.