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Updated: Dec 27, 2025

Investigating Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior using a Robotic Arm-Reaching Paradigm
Published on: October 3, 2020
Error-related negativity relates to the neural processing of brief aversive bodily sensations
Valentina Jelinčić1, Diana M Torta1, Ilse Van Diest1
1Research Group Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, KU Leuven Tiensestraat 102, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.
Abstract:
The error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related potential occurring in the electroencephalogram (EEG) within 100 ms after the commission of an error. The ERN is thought to partially reflect emotionally aversive aspects of error commission, however, it has thus far not been related to the neural processing of other aversive events, such as brief aversive bodily sensations. Therefore, the present study investigated the links between the ERN and the N1 amplitudes of respiratory-related evoked potentials (RREP) and somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP). During the acquisition of high-density EEG, 41 healthy participants performed a Flanker task to evoke the ERN, while RREP and SEP were separately elicited, using inspiratory occlusions and electrocutaneous stimulation of the wrist. Significant positive correlations were observed between the amplitudes of the ERN and the N1 of RREP and SEP, suggesting relationships between the neural processing of different emotionally aversive events, namely errors and bodily sensations.
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