title: Processing expected and unexpected uncertainty is modulated by fearless-dominance personality traits - An exploratory ERP study on feedback processing.
abstract: Expectancy and certainty regarding an outcome are important factors during performance monitoring. However, the separate contributions of expected and unexpected uncertainty on different measures of performance monitoring, including feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P300 components, are not well established. The current study investigated their relationship to fearless-dominance, a personality construct described by high social potency and low anxiety. Accurately predicting environmental outcomes in certain and uncertain situations might be a prerequisite of social potency, therefore it may be associated with increased performance monitoring and its ERP correlates. Consequently, expected-uncertain and unexpected-uncertain feedback (by violating previously learned certain and expected feedback) was introduced in addition to expected-certain feedback in healthy individuals during a probabilistic gambling task. In both FRN and P300 components, difference waves were more pronounced for unexpected-uncertain and expected-uncertain compared to expected-certain feedback. Moreover, more fearless-dominant individuals showed diminished feedback processing specifically in expected-uncertain trials, but concurrently enhanced attentional processing in expected-certain trials. These findings indicate adaptive and situation-appropriate utilization of performance monitoring resources in individuals with more pronounced fearless-dominance personality traits. The results indicate that a precise differentiation of expected and unexpected uncertainty in fearless-dominant individuals is mandatory in order to better understand the underlying personality construct and related behavior.
authors: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School, University of Tübingen, Calwerstrasse 14, 72074 Tübingen, Germany. Electronic address: lydia.kogler@med.uni-tuebingen.de.
authors: Lydia
authors: L
authors: Kogler
authors: Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Dept. of Behavioural Sciences in Medicine, University of Oslo, PO Box 1111, Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway; Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: uta.sailer@medisin.uio.no.
authors: Uta
authors: U
authors: Sailer
authors: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School, University of Tübingen, Calwerstrasse 14, 72074 Tübingen, Germany. Electronic address: birgit.derntl@med.uni-tuebingen.de.
authors: Birgit
authors: B
authors: Derntl
authors: Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria; Culture and Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, 52 Haidian Road, Beijing 100871, China. Electronic address: daniela.pfabigan@univie.ac.at.
authors: Daniela M
authors: DM
authors: Pfabigan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D030141:Feedback, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012044:Regression Analysis; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Certainty; Expectancy; FRN; Fearless-dominance; P300; Performance monitoring