title: Error monitoring is related to processing internal affective states.
abstract: Detecting behavioral errors is critical for optimizing performance. Here, we tested whether error monitoring is enhanced in emotional task contexts, and whether this enhancement depends on processing internal affective states. Event-related potentials were recorded in individuals with low and high levels of alexithymia-that is, individuals with difficulties identifying and describing their feelings. We administered a face word Stroop paradigm (Egner, Etkin, Gale, & Hirsch, 2008) in which the task was to classify emotional faces either with respect to their expression (happy or fearful; emotional task set) or with respect to their gender (female or male; neutral task set). The error-related negativity, a marker of rapid error monitoring, was enhanced in individuals with low alexithymia when they adopted the emotional task set. By contrast, individuals with high alexithymia did not show such an enhancement. Moreover, in the high-alexithymia group, the difference in the error-related negativities between the emotional and neutral task sets correlated negatively with difficulties identifying their own feelings, as measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. These results show that error-monitoring activity is stronger in emotional task contexts and that this enhancement depends on processing internal affective states.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Ostenstrasse 25, 85072, Eichstätt, Germany. martin.maier@ku.de.|Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience Cesena, Cesena, Italy. martin.maier@ku.de.
authors.forename: Martin E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Maier
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience Cesena, Cesena, Italy.|Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scarpazza
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience Cesena, Cesena, Italy.|Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Starita
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience Cesena, Cesena, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Filogamo
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience Cesena, Cesena, Italy.|Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Làdavas
mesh_terms: D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D004569:Electroencephalography; D056348:Emotional Intelligence / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D030141:Feedback, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011930:Reaction Time; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D057190:Stroop Test; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cognitive control; Emotion; Event-related potentials (ERPs)