Hormonal status effects on the electrophysiological correlates of performance monitoring in women.

Fluctuations in ovarian hormones are thought to play a role in the increased prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders in women. Error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) are two putative electrophysiological biomarkers for these internalizing disorders. We investigated whether female hormonal status, specifically menstrual cycle phase and oral contraceptive (OC) use, impact ERN and Pe. Additionally, we examined whether the relationship between the ERN and negative affect (NA) was moderated by hormonal status and tested whether the ERN mediated the relation between ovarian hormones and NA. Participants were healthy, pre-menopausal women who were naturally cycling (NC) or using OCs. Using a counterbalanced within-subject design, all participants performed a speeded-choice reaction-time task twice while undergoing electroencephalography measurements. NC women (N = 42) performed this task during the early follicular and midluteal phase (when estrogen and progesterone are both low and both high, respectively), while OC users (N = 42) performed the task during active OC use and during their pill-free week. Estradiol and progesterone levels were assessed in saliva. Comparing the two cycle phases within NC women revealed no differences in the (Δ)ERN, (Δ)Pe or NA. We did observe a negative relation between phase-related changes in the ΔERN and changes in NA. Mediation analysis additionally showed that phase-related changes in estradiol were indirectly and negatively related to NA through a reduction of ΔERN amplitudes. When comparing active OC users with NC women, we observed increased ΔPe- but not (Δ)ERN amplitudes in the former group. No evidence was found for moderating effects of menstrual cycle phase or OC use on the relation between the ERN and NA. These findings suggest that hormonal status may impact the neural correlates of performance monitoring and error sensitivity, and that this could be a potential mechanism through which ovarian hormones influence mood.

Mistakes that matter: An event-related potential study on obsessive-compulsive symptoms and social performance monitoring in different responsibility contexts.

Mistakes that affect others often are linked to increased feelings of responsibility and guilt. This especially holds for individuals high in obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS), who are characterized by inflated feelings of responsibility and a fear of causing harm to others. This event-related potential study investigated individual differences in OCS in social performance monitoring with a focus on the role of responsibility for other's harm and the error-related negativity (ERN). Healthy volunteers low (N = 27) or high (N = 24) in OCS performed a Flanker task in the presence of a gender-matched peer in three conditions. Mistakes could either have negative monetary consequences for 1) oneself, 2) the other, or 3) no one. Results showed enhanced ERNs for mistakes that harmed others instead of the self for individuals high in OCS, whereas individuals low in OCS showed decreased amplitudes specifically for mistakes affecting no one versus oneself. Amplitudes of the error positivity but not the ERN also were larger in the high OCS group. These findings indicate that high OCS are associated with enhanced performance monitoring in a social responsibility context, when mistakes harm others instead of the self, and demonstrate the importance of integrating the social context in performance monitoring research as a way to shed more light on obsessive-compulsive symptomatology.

Being right, but losing money: the role of striatum in joint decision making.

Joint decision-making entails that you sometimes have to go along with the other's choice even though you disagree. In this situation, a resulting negative outcome may, however, elicit a feeling of satisfaction and an impulse to say "I told you so". Using fMRI, we investigated the neural correlates of this complex process comprised of both positive and negative outcomes. During a social visual search task, 19 participants gave their advice to a co-actor who then made the decision resulting in a mutual loss or gain. This design allowed direct comparisons of situations that resulted in the same monetary outcome but that differed with respect to the correctness of the initial advice of the participant. Increased striatal activations were found for gains compared to losses and for correct compared to incorrect advice. Importantly, ROI analyses also showed enhanced striatum activation for monetary losses that were preceded by correct compared to incorrect advices. The current study therefore suggests that reward-related neural mechanisms may be involved when being right even in situations that end in monetary losses.

Does oxytocin lead to emotional interference during a working memory paradigm?

BACKGROUND: Oxytocin administration may increase attention to emotional information. We hypothesized that this augmented emotional processing might in turn lead to interference on concurrent cognitive tasks. To test this hypothesis, we examined whether oxytocin administration would lead to heightened emotional interference during a working memory paradigm. Additionally, moderating effects of childhood maltreatment were explored. METHODS: Seventy-eight healthy males received 24 IU of intranasal oxytocin or placebo in a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind between-subjects study. A working memory task was performed during which neutral, positive, and negative distractors were presented. RESULTS: The main outcome observed was that oxytocin did not enhance interference by emotional information during the working memory task. There was a non-significant trend for oxytocin to slow down performance irrespective of distractor valence, while accuracy was unaffected. Exploratory analyses showed that childhood maltreatment was related to lower overall accuracy, but in the placebo condition only. However, the maltreated group sample size was very small precluding any conclusions on its moderating effect. CONCLUSIONS: Despite oxytocin's previously proposed role in enhanced emotional processing, no proof was found that this would lead to reduced performance on a concurrent cognitive task. The routes by which oxytocin exerts its effects on cognitive and social-emotional processes remain to be fully elucidated.

EEG correlates of impaired self-other integration during joint-task performance in schizophrenia.

Deficits in a wide variety of social cognitive processes are well established in schizophrenia. However, research focusing on actual interacting individuals is surprisingly scarce. Problems in low-level processes such as self-other integration may importantly underlie often-reported higher-level deficits. The current study aimed at measuring possible disturbances in self-other integration in schizophrenia using both behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures. Sixteen healthy controls and fifteen schizophrenia patients performed a social Simon task in both a joint and an individual setting. Behaviorally, patients showed general slower reaction times, but comparable self-other integration as reflected in the social Simon effect. The ERP results for the healthy controls revealed increased no-go P3 amplitudes in the joint compared with the individual setting. Crucially, patients did not show this increase in no-go P3 amplitude. In line with previous research, the present ERP findings demonstrate that healthy volunteers needed more effort to inhibit their responses in the joint compared with the individual setting. Patients however, showed altered self-other integration when they had to withhold their responses while their co-actor had to act. These outcomes indicate that schizophrenia patients have deficits in low-level processes required for successful joint action.

The acute effects of MDMA and ethanol administration on electrophysiological correlates of performance monitoring in healthy volunteers.

RATIONALE: Knowing how commonly used drugs affect performance monitoring is of great importance, because drug use is often associated with compromised behavioral control. Two of the most commonly used recreational drugs in the western world, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or "ecstasy") and ethanol (alcohol), are also often used in combination. The error-related negativity (ERN), correct-related negativity (CRN), and N2 are electrophysiological indices of performance monitoring. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to investigate how ethanol, MDMA, and their co-administration affect performance monitoring as indexed by the electrophysiological correlates. METHODS: Behavioral and EEG data were obtained from 14 healthy volunteers during execution of a speeded choice-reaction-time task after administration of ethanol, MDMA, and combined ethanol and MDMA, in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized crossover design. RESULTS: Ethanol significantly reduced ERN amplitudes, while administration of MDMA did not affect the ERN. Co-administration of MDMA and ethanol did not further impair nor ameliorate the effect of ethanol alone. No drug effects on CRN nor N2 were observed. DISCUSSION: A decreased ERN following ethanol administration is in line with previous work and offers further support for the impairing effects of alcohol intoxication on performance monitoring. This impairment may underlie maladaptive behavior in people who are under influence. Moreover, these data demonstrate for the first time that MDMA does not affect performance monitoring nor does it interact with ethanol in this process. These findings corroborate the notion that MDMA leaves central executive functions relatively unaffected.

Feedback-related negativity codes outcome valence, but not outcome expectancy, during reversal learning.

Optimal behavior depends on the ability to assess the predictive value of events and to adjust behavior accordingly. Outcome processing can be studied by using its electrophysiological signatures--that is, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and the P300. A prominent reinforcement-learning model predicts an FRN on negative prediction errors, as well as implying a role for the FRN in learning and the adaptation of behavior. However, these predictions have recently been challenged. Notably, studies so far have used tasks in which the outcomes have been contingent on the response. In these paradigms, the need to adapt behavioral responses is present only for negative, not for positive feedback. The goal of the present study was to investigate the effects of positive as well as negative violations of expectancy on FRN amplitudes, without the usual confound of behavioral adjustments. A reversal-learning task was employed in which outcome value and outcome expectancy were orthogonalized; that is, both positive and negative outcomes were equally unexpected. The results revealed a double dissociation, with effects of valence but not expectancy on the FRN and, conversely, effects of expectancy but not valence on the P300. While FRN amplitudes were largest for negative-outcome trials, irrespective of outcome expectancy, P300 amplitudes were largest for unexpected-outcome trials, irrespective of outcome valence. These FRN effects were interpreted to reflect an evaluation along a good-bad dimension, rather than reflecting a negative prediction error or a role in behavioral adaptation. By contrast, the P300 reflects the updating of information relevant for behavior in a changing context.

DBH -1021C>T and COMT Val108/158Met genotype are not associated with the P300 ERP in an auditory oddball task.

OBJECTIVE: The amplitude and latency of the P300 may be associated by variations in dopaminergic genes. The current study was conducted to determine whether functional variants of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) gene were associated with P300 amplitude and latency in an auditory oddball task. METHODS: The P300 ERP was assessed by a two-tone auditory oddball paradigm in a large sample of 320 healthy volunteers. The Val108/158Met polymorphism (rs4680) of the COMT gene and the -1021C>T polymorphism (rs1611115) of the DBH gene were genotyped. P300 amplitude and latency were compared across genotype groups using analysis of variance. RESULTS: There were no differences in demographic characteristics in subjects for genotypic subgroups. No genotype associations were observed for the P300 amplitude and latency on frontal, central and parietal electrode positions. CONCLUSIONS: COMT Val108/158Met and DBH -1021C>T polymorphisms do not show evidence of association with characteristics of the P300 ERP in an auditory oddball paradigm in healthy volunteers. SIGNIFICANCE: We failed to find evidence for the association between dopaminergic enzymatic polymorphisms and the P300 ERP in healthy volunteers, in the largest study undertaken to date.

Trait and state aspects of internal and external performance monitoring in schizophrenia.

Disturbed internal performance monitoring has been repeatedly demonstrated in schizophrenia. Along with internal monitoring, efficiently processing external task-relevant performance feedback that goes unnoticed by the internal monitoring system is crucial for adequate performance. It is unknown whether external monitoring is disturbed in schizophrenia and whether it is trait or state dependent. The current study investigated the effects of treatment on both internal and external performance monitoring in schizophrenia. Twelve schizophrenia patients and twelve matched healthy controls performed a modified flanker task while ERPs and behavioral measures were obtained. Both groups were assessed twice, with a six-week interval, during which the patients received antipsychotic treatment. Internal monitoring was investigated by means of the response-locked error-related negativity (Ne/ERN), an event-related potential component elicited by erroneous responses. External monitoring was investigated by analyzing the feedback-locked P300 elicited by task-relevant external response-time feedback (late feedback). Compared to controls, schizophrenia patients showed diminished Ne/ERN amplitudes, which were insensitive to six weeks of treatment. Patients also had reduced P300 amplitudes in response to late feedback at the first assessment, but these were normalized at the second assessment. Also, patients showed increased performance following negative external feedback at the second session. This study demonstrates the importance of considering both forms of performance monitoring in schizophrenia. Diminished internal error processing seems to be an important 'trait' marker of the disorder, while processing of externally presented feedback appears to have a 'state' character, susceptible to treatment at both a neurophysiological and a behavioral level.

Mistakes that affect others: an fMRI study on processing of own errors in a social context.

In social contexts, errors have a special significance and often bear consequences for others. Thinking about others and drawing social inferences in interpersonal games engages the mentalizing system. We used neuroimaging to investigate the differences in brain activations between errors that affect only agents themselves and errors that additionally influence the payoffs of interaction partners. Activation in posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) and bilateral insula was increased for all errors, whereas errors that implied consequences for others specifically activated medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), an important part of the mentalizing system. The results demonstrate that performance monitoring in social contexts involves additional processes and brain structures compared with individual performance monitoring where errors only have consequences for the person committing them. Taking into account how one's behavior may affect others is particularly crucial for adapting behavior in interpersonal interactions and joint action.

Neural correlates of error-related learning deficits in individuals with psychopathy.

BACKGROUND: Psychopathy (PP) is associated with a performance deficit in a variety of stimulus-response and stimulus-reinforcement learning paradigms. We tested the hypothesis that failures in error monitoring underlie these learning deficits. METHOD: We measured electrophysiological correlates of error monitoring [error-related negativity (ERN)] during a probabilistic learning task in individuals with PP (n=13) and healthy matched control subjects (n=18). The task consisted of three graded learning conditions in which the amount of learning was manipulated by varying the degree to which the response was predictive of the value of the feedback (50, 80 and 100%). RESULTS: Behaviourally, we found impaired learning and diminished accuracy in the group of individuals with PP. Amplitudes of the response ERN (rERN) were reduced. No differences in the feedback ERN (fERN) were found. CONCLUSIONS: The results are interpreted in terms of a deficit in initial rule learning and subsequent generalization of these rules to new stimuli. Negative feedback is adequately processed at a neural level but this information is not used to improve behaviour on subsequent trials. As learning is degraded, the process of error detection at the moment of the actual response is diminished. Therefore, the current study demonstrates that disturbed error-monitoring processes play a central role in the often reported learning deficits in individuals with PP.

A cognitive neuropsychiatric analysis of psychomotor symptoms in major depression and schizophrenia.

A cognitive neuropsychiatric analysis will be proposed by presenting recent research on -1-motor control, and -2-action monitoring in two psychiatric disorders i.e. major depression and schizophrenia. Motor control is best studied from the broader cognitive neuropsychological perspective of action control. Even very simple actions implicate quite diverse brain activities reflecting the cognitive processes of planning, selection, visuomotor integration, timing, force adjustment, and action monitoring. The extent to which deficits in these cognitive processes cause slowed or stereotypic actions can be experimentally studied in clinical settings by means of graphic tasks, as will be illustrated. A central process in motor/action control is error monitoring. The last decade research on this higher cognitive control process has been booming, also because the detection of errors is accompanied by a clear peak in the EEG, known as the error-related negativity (ERN). Deficient error monitoring has been observed in several psychiatric disorders. ERN studies in major depression and schizophrenia will be discussed. Psychiatric disorders can best be understood by considering three perspectives, i.e. psychopathology, cognitive neuropsychology and neuroscience. The findings support the view that cognitive neuropsychiatry should involve the combined study of psychiatric symptoms, cognitive dimensions and neurological structures.