title: Alterations in error-related brain activity and post-error behavior over time.
abstract: This study examines the relation between the error-related negativity (ERN) and post-error behavior over time in healthy young adults (N=61). Event-related brain potentials were collected during two sessions of an identical flanker task. Results indicated changes in ERN and post-error accuracy were related across task sessions, with more negative ERN associated with greater improvements in post-error accuracy. This relationship was independent of any cross-sectional relationships between overall task performance, individual difference factors, including personality and self-efficacy, and indices of self-regulatory action monitoring. These results indicate that the relation between ERN and post-error accuracy remains intact and consistent regardless of variation in this set of individual difference factors previously associated with both of these indices of self-regulatory action monitoring, providing support for the strength, robustness, and persistence of this relationship in the process of adaptively controlling behavior to enhance task performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL 61702-2900, USA. jthemans@iwu.edu
authors.forename: Jason R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Themanson
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Rosen
authors.forename: Matthew B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Pontifex
authors.forename: Charles H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Hillman
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McAuley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012927:Social Control, Informal