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Measuring Neural and Behavioral Activity During Ongoing Computerized Social Interactions: An Examination of Event-Related Brain Potentials

Social exclusion is a complex social phenomenon with powerful negative consequences. Given the impact of social exclusion on mental and emotional health, ...

Illinois Wesleyan University

Behavioral and neuroelectric indices of action monitoring were compared for 53 high and low physically active older (60-71 years) and younger (18-21 years) adults during a task-switching paradigm in which they performed a task repeatedly or switched between two different tasks. The error-related negativity (ERN) of a response-locked event-related brain potential (ERP) and behavioral measures of response speed and accuracy were measured during the heterogeneous condition (switching randomly between two tasks) of the switch task. Results indicated that older adults exhibited a greater relative slowing in RT during heterogeneous blocks and smaller ERN amplitude compared to younger adults. Additionally, physical activity differences revealed a relatively smaller global switch cost for physically active older adults and decreased ERN amplitude, as well as increased post-error response slowing for older and younger physically active participants, compared to their less physically active counterparts. The findings suggest that both age and physical activity participation influence behavioral and neuroelectric indices of action monitoring and provide further evidence for the beneficial effects of physical activity on executive control.

Age and physical activity influences on action monitoring during task switching.

The relationships between self-efficacy (SE), i.e., beliefs in personal capabilities, and behavioral and neuroelectric (i.e., ERN, Pe) indices of action monitoring were investigated in 40 older adults (13 male) during the completion of a flanker paradigm performed under task conditions emphasizing either accuracy or speed. SE relative to task performance during both conditions was assessed prior to each cognitive task. Results indicated that high-SE older adults exhibited larger ERN and Pe amplitudes compared to low-SE older adults under the accuracy instruction condition. Additionally, a moderating effect of SE on the relationship between ERN and post-error response accuracy was revealed in the accuracy condition, with greater ERN amplitude associated with greater post-error accuracy in the high-SE group. No significant relationships were evident between ERN and post-error accuracy in the low-SE group. Further, no significant relationships involving SE were observed in the speed condition. The findings suggest that SE may be related to neuroelectric and behavioral indices of action monitoring in older adults when task demands require greater attention to action monitoring processes.

Self-efficacy effects on neuroelectric and behavioral indices of action monitoring in older adults.

The relationship between aerobic fitness and executive control was assessed in 38 higher- and lower-fit children (M-sub(age) = 9.4 years), grouped according to their performance on a field test of aerobic capacity. Participants performed a flanker task requiring variable amounts of executive control while event-related brain potential responses and task performance were assessed. Results indicated that higher-fit children performed more accurately across conditions of the flanker task and following commission errors when compared to lower-fit children, whereas no group differences were observed for reaction time. Neuroelectric data indicated that P3 amplitude was larger for higher- compared to lower-fit children across conditions of the flanker task, and higher-fit children exhibited reduced error-related negativity amplitude and increased error positivity amplitude compared to lower-fit children. The data suggest that fitness is associated with better cognitive performance on an executive control task through increased cognitive control, resulting in greater allocation of attentional resources during stimulus encoding and a subsequent reduction in conflict during response selection. The findings differ from those observed in adult populations by indicating a general rather than a selective relationship between aerobic fitness and cognition.

Aerobic fitness and cognitive development: Event-related brain potential and task performance indices of executive control in preadolescent children.

The minimum number of trials necessary to accurately characterize the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe) across the life span was investigated using samples of preadolescent children, college-age young adults, and older adults. Event-related potentials and task performance were subsequently measured during a modified flanker task. Response-locked averages were created using sequentially increasing errors of commission in blocks of two. Findings indicated that across all age cohorts ERN and Pe were not significantly different relative to the within-participants grand average after six trials. Further, results indicated that the ERN and Pe exhibited excellent internal reliability in preadolescent children and young adults after six trials, but older adults required eight trials to reach similar reliability. These data indicate that the ERN and Pe may be accurately quantified with as few as six to eight commission error trials across the life span.

On the number of trials necessary for stabilization of error-related brain activity across the life span.

The relation of aerobic fitness to task preparation was examined in a sample of young adults separated into higher- and lower-fit groups according to their maximal oxygen consumption. Participants performed a modified Sternberg working memory task under speed and accuracy instructions while measures of task performance and contingent negative variation (CNV) were collected. Analyses revealed no significant fitness differences between groups on task performance measures. However, frontal CNV amplitude was significantly larger for lower-fit participants compared to higher-fit participants during the speed instructions, an effect not found for the accuracy instructions. These results suggest that lower-fit individuals may rely to a greater extent on cognitive control processes to respond under speeded conditions, whereas higher-fit individuals may maintain a more constant level of control irrespective of the task instructions.

The relation of aerobic fitness to neuroelectric indices of cognitive and motor task preparation.

The implicit association test (IAT) has been widely used in social cognitive research over the past decade. Controversies have arisen over what cognitive processes are being tapped into using this task. While most models use behavioral (RT) results to support their claims, little research has examined neurocognitive correlates of these behavioral measures. The present study measured event-related brain potentials (ERPs) of participants while completing a gay-straight IAT in order to further understand the processes involved in a typical group bias IAT. Results indicated significantly smaller N400 amplitudes and significantly larger LPP amplitudes for compatible trials than for incompatible trials, suggesting that both the semantic and emotional congruence of stimuli paired together in an IAT trial contribute to the typical RT differences found, while no differences were present for earlier ERP components including the N2. These findings are discussed with respect to early and late processing in group bias IATs.

Neural correlates of the implicit association test: evidence for semantic and emotional processing.

Relations between a modifiable psychosocial factor, self-efficacy (SE), and behavioral and neural indices of self-regulation, including post-error behavior, the error-related negativity (ERN), and error positivity (Pe) were examined in young adults during a flanker task emphasizing either accuracy or speed. SE was predicted to be associated with larger ERN and Pe amplitudes, as well as greater post-error behavioral performance during task conditions emphasizing accuracy, but not speed. Results showed that higher SE was associated with greater post-error response accuracy during the accuracy condition, but not the speed condition, and higher SE was related with greater ERN amplitudes across instruction conditions. Further, ERN amplitude mediated the relationship between SE and post-error response accuracy in the accuracy condition. These findings emphasize the role of motivation and incentive on the self-regulatory system and suggest that SE is beneficially related to self-regulatory processes and outcomes.

The relation of self-efficacy and error-related self-regulation.

Social exclusion is known to cause alterations in neural activity and perceptions of social distress. However, previous research is largely limited to examining social interactions as a unitary phenomenon without investigating adjustments in neural and attentional processes that occur during social interactions. To address this limitation, we examined neural activity on a trial-by-trial basis during different social interactions. Our results show conflict monitoring neural alarm activation, indexed by the N2, in response to specific exclusionary events; even during interactions that are inclusionary overall and in the absence of self-reported feelings of social pain. Furthermore, we show enhanced attentional activation to exclusionary events, indexed by the P3b, during exclusionary, compared with inclusionary, interactions, and this P3b activation was associated with self-reported social distress following prolonged social exclusion. Finally, both the N2 and P3b showed larger amplitudes in the earlier stages of exclusion compared with later stages, suggesting heightened early sensitivity for both components. Together, these findings provide novel insights into the dynamic neural and perceptual processes of exclusion that exist during social interactions and the relationship between discrete events within interactions and the more general contexts of the social interactions.

An event-related examination of neural activity during social interactions.

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.

Alterations in error-related brain activity and post-error behavior over time.

The current study investigated the influence of social exclusion, created through the Cyberball paradigm, on cognitive control using neural and behavioral measures of action monitoring. Healthy young adults performed a modified flanker task while their post-error behavior (accuracy, RT) and error-related negativity (ERN) were assessed. Results indicated that excluded participants showed decreased ERN and post-error response accuracy compared to included participants following their social interactions. These findings suggest that a common neural framework may exist for cognitive control processes and that cognitive control allocated toward exclusion-related processing following exclusionary social interactions may disrupt the capability to support self-regulatory action monitoring.

The effects of social exclusion on the ERN and the cognitive control of action monitoring.

Exclusionary social events are known to cause alterations in neural activity and attention-related processes. However, the precise nature of these neural adjustments remains unknown as previous research has been limited to examining social interactions and exclusionary events as unitary phenomena. To address this limitation, we assessed neural activity during both inclusionary and exclusionary social interactions by examining event-related brain potentials at multiple points within each social event. Our results show an initial enhancement of anterior cingulate cortex -related activation, indexed by the anterior N2, in response to specific exclusionary events followed by an enhanced attentional orienting response, indexed by the P3a, to later segments of each exclusionary event. Decreases in this P3a activation from social inclusion to social exclusion were associated with self-reported increases in anxiety, negative affect, and feelings of depression from inclusion to exclusion. Together, these findings provide novel insights into the dynamic and ongoing neural processes associated with attentional allocation toward social exclusion and the nature of the relationships between neural and behavioral reactions to exclusionary social interactions.

The ongoing cognitive processing of exclusionary social events: Evidence from event-related potentials.

Self-efficacy (SE) is a modifiable psychosocial factor related to individuals' beliefs in their capabilities to successfully complete courses of action and has been shown to be positively associated with task performance. The authors hypothesized that one means through which SE is related with improved performance is through enhanced task-relevant attentional control during task execution. To assess this hypothesis, we examined the relationships between SE and behavioural and neural indices of task performance and task-relevant attentional control for 76 young adults during the completion of a flanker task. Results showed that greater SE was associated with greater response accuracy and P3b amplitude across task conditions, and faster RT under more difficult task conditions. Additionally, P3b amplitude was found to mediate the relationship between SE and task performance in the difficult condition. These findings suggest that greater attentional allocation to task-relevant processes, including monitoring stimulus-response relationships and focusing attention on working memory operations, may help explain the association between SE and improved task performance.

Examining the relationships between self-efficacy, task-relevant attentional control , and task performance: Evidence from event-related brain potentials.

Jason R. Themanson

Psychology Department

Illinois Wesleyan University

Measuring Neural and Behavioral Activity During Ongoing Computerized Social Interactions: An Examination of Event-Related Brain Potentials

Jason R. Themanson

.css-o250i3{font-size:18px;font-family:Open Sans,sans-serif;line-height:21.6px;}Psychology Department

Illinois Wesleyan University

Measuring Neural and Behavioral Activity During Ongoing Computerized Social Interactions: An Examination of Event-Related Brain Potentials

Psychology Department