Early Action Error Processing Is Due to Domain-General Surprise, Whereas Later Processing Is Error Specific.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroscience
• Psychology

Background:

• Cognitive control enables behavioral adaptation after errors, often observed as post-error slowing (PES).
• Recent theories question if PES reflects adaptive control or is merely a byproduct of error-related surprise.
• Neuroimaging suggests overlapping brain networks for error and surprise processing, challenging the existence of a dedicated error system.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if unique, error-specific processes contribute to PES beyond domain-general surprise.
• To differentiate neural mechanisms underlying error processing versus general surprise.
• To determine if behavioral adaptation after errors is a distinct cognitive function.

Main Methods:

• Utilized electroencephalography (EEG) decoding and a novel behavioral paradigm.
• Conducted two experiments with 76 human participants (male and female).
• Analyzed behavioral responses and neural activity across different response-stimulus intervals.

Main Results:

• Both errors and error-unrelated surprise led to slower responses at short intervals.
• Early neural processes for errors and surprise showed cross-decoding, indicating shared mechanisms.
• At longer intervals, only errors elicited sustained slowing and distinct neural activity, suggesting error-specific adaptation.

Conclusions:

• Initial processing of errors and surprise involves common neural mechanisms.
• With additional processing time, unique, error-specific processes emerge, contributing to adaptive behavioral control.
• These findings support a distinct role for error processing in cognitive adaptation beyond general surprise detection.