A review examining the relationship between individual differences in the error-related negativity and cognitive control
Abstract
Almost 30 years ago, two independent groups discovered the errorrelated negativity (ERN, or Ne; Falkenstein et al., 1991; Gehring et al., 1993), an event-related brain potential (ERP) evident as a large negative deflection that peaks approximately 50ms after error commission in speeded reaction time tasks. Although it is clear that the ERN is elicited by performance failures, the specific functional significance of the ERN continues to be debated. The ERN is often discussed within the broader context of performance monitoring: how the detection of errors and subsequent adjustments in performance are critical for successful goal-directed actions (Ridderinkhof et al., 2004). From this perspective, the ERN reflects the evaluation of actions that require corrective action. Indeed, early computational models proposed that the ERN reflected neural activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) that improved the subsequent selection of appropriate information and actions (Holroyd and Coles, 2002; Yeung et al., 2004). Many researchers argued that there was a direct link between error-monitoring activity of the ACC and subsequent adjustments in performance (Carter et al., 1998; Van Veen and Carter, 2006)—the ERN was viewed as a signal that engaged cognitive control processes. Gehring's original paper on the ERN provided the first empirical support linking ERN amplitude and cognitive control: within-subjects, the ERN was larger when performance instructions emphasized accuracy over…
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