title: Neural Bases of Unconscious Error Detection in a Chinese Anagram Solution Task: Evidence from ERP Study.
abstract: In everyday life, error monitoring and processing are important for improving ongoing performance in response to a changing environment. However, detecting an error is not always a conscious process. The temporal activation patterns of brain areas related to cognitive control in the absence of conscious awareness of an error remain unknown. In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) in the brain were used to explore the neural bases of unconscious error detection when subjects solved a Chinese anagram task. Our ERP data showed that the unconscious error detection (UED) response elicited a more negative ERP component (N2) than did no error (NE) and detect error (DE) responses in the 300-400-ms time window, and the DE elicited a greater late positive component (LPC) than did the UED and NE in the 900-1200-ms time window after the onset of the anagram stimuli. Taken together with the results of dipole source analysis, the N2 (anterior cingulate cortex) might reflect unconscious/automatic conflict monitoring, and the LPC (superior/medial frontal gyrus) might reflect conscious error recognition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, 401331, China.
authors.forename: Hua-Zhan
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, 401331, China.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing, 400715, China.
authors.forename: Junyi-
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing, 400715, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing, 400715, China.
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, 401331, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Yu
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult