Success versus failure in cognitive control: Meta-analytic evidence from neuroimaging studies on error processing

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Error processing research often overemphasizes the posterior medial frontal cortex.
• The roles of other brain regions in error detection and response conflict remain underexplored.

Approach:

• Utilized activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses to synthesize neuroimaging data.
• Compared brain activity during error commission versus successful responding in interference tasks.

Key Points:

• The salience network and temporoparietial junction are involved in general cognitive control, active during both correct and incorrect responses.
• Error-specific brain regions include the dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, posterior thalamus, and left superior frontal gyrus.
• Successful responding shows greater activation in the dorsal attention network and lateral prefrontal cortex.

Conclusions:

• Error processing involves a distributed network beyond the posterior medial frontal cortex.
• Distinct neural mechanisms support error detection and successful response execution, highlighting the importance of cognitive control networks.