Schedule of Events | Symposia

Error precursors reflecting selective attention to distractors predict error-related brain activity.

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Martin Maier¹, Marco Steinhauser¹; ¹Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Eichstätt, Germany

The error-related negativity (Ne/ERN), an electrophysiological correlate of error monitoring in choice tasks, is related to post-error adjustments of behavior indicating that it signals the need for behavioral adjustments following errors. This requires that the underlying error monitoring system takes possible error sources into account, for instance, by monitoring error precursors related to these error sources. Here, we aimed to isolate such an error precursor and to test whether it predicts the size of the Ne/ERN. In a selective attention task, participants had to classify a target letter in one hemifield but ignore a distractor letter in the opposite hemifield. Stimulus-related posterior alpha asymmetry was enhanced for errors compared to correct responses indicating increased attention to the distractors on error trials. This error precursor predicted the Ne/ERN amplitude on a single-trial level. Furthermore, the Ne/ERN on a given error trial predicted decreased stimulus-related alpha asymmetry on the next correct trial. Our results thus provide support for the idea that source-specific error precursors are monitored to appropriately signal the need for behavioral post-error adjustments.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Monitoring & inhibitory control