Error-Related Brain Activity Indicates Immediate Auto-Cancellation of Action Slips

The error-related negativity (ERN) is a classic electrophysiological index of error detection. However, the present study challenges its classical functional interpretation by analyzing the ERN relative to the termination of erroneous actions (response offsets), a behavioral marker of error cancellation. Our findings reveal that the ERN reflects immediate auto-cancellation of ongoing erroneous behavior. Specifically, our findings corroborate that erroneous responses come with significantly shortened response durations (RDs) compared to correct responses, pointing to an immediate and active cancellation of ongoing motor activity. Crucially, ERN amplitude and latency varied with RDs, indicating that the ERN may reflect not only passive error detection but also the autonomous implementation of corrective behavior. These observations portray human performance monitoring as consisting of two components: a passive component related to detecting action slips, and an active component related to the implementation of behavioral changes. Moreover, these results carry important clinical implications. Abnormal ERN patterns observed in conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and Parkinson's disease may stem not solely from impaired error detection but from disrupted regulation and cancellation of erroneous actions. By integrating behavioral dynamics with electrophysiological measures, our study highlights the need to reconsider the functional significance of the ERN in both cognitive neuroscience and clinical contexts.