title: Feedback in hypothesis testing: an ERP study.
abstract: We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to probe the effects of feedback in a hypothesis testing (HT) paradigm. Thirteen college students serially tested hypotheses concerning a hidden rule by judging its presence or absence in triplets of digits and revised them on the basis of an exogenous performance feedback. ERPs time-locked to performance feedback were then examined. The results showed differences between responses to positive and negative feedback at all cortical sites. Negative feedback, indicating incorrect performance, was associated to a negative deflection preceding a P300-like wave. Spatiotemporal principal component analysis (PCA) showed the interplay between early frontal components and later central and posterior ones. Lateralization of activity was selectively detectable at frontal sites, with a left frontal dominance for both positive and negative feedback. These results are discussed in terms of a proposed computational model of trial-to-trial feedback in HT in which the cognitive and emotive aspects of feedback are explicitly linked to putative mediating brain mechanisms. The properties of different feedback types and feedback-related deficits in depression are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Université de Provence, Marseille Cedex 3, France. david.papo@chups.jussieu.fr
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Papo
authors.forename: Pierre-Marie
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Baudonnière
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hugueville
authors.forename: Jean-Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Caverni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D030141:Feedback, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology