Intolerance of uncertainty, depression and the error-related negativity

Error-related brain activity shapes the association between trait neuroticism and internalizing symptomatology in two tasks

The current study examined how individual differences in error-related brain activity might moderate the association between high trait neuroticism and internalizing symptoms. Data were collected from a sample of high-achieving young adults (N = 188) as part of a larger study on risk versus resiliency for psychopathology. Participants completed two behavioral tasks to elicit the error-related negativity (ERN): an arrow Flanker task and a Go/No-Go task. Analyses were constrained to two internalizing symptom dimensions of checking behavior and irritability. Contrary to expectations, ERN amplitude was not related to symptom severity at the bivariate level. However, ERN amplitude moderated the association between trait neuroticism and symptoms of ill temper, such that the neuroticism-irritability association was strongest among individuals with a blunted ERN. In addition, this finding was relatively consistent across tasks and across two complementary methods of scoring the ERN, suggesting an effect of ERN variance that is shared between tasks and that is relatively robust regarding processing differences. In all, the current study represents the first attempt to investigate how the ERN interacts with trait neuroticism to predict transdiagnostic symptom dimensions in adulthood.

Being underweight, academic performance and cognitive control in undergraduate women

The prevalence of underweight among young women is a serious international health issue. However, the evidence on how being underweight negatively affects brain health and cognition is still unclear. This study investigated the association between underweight status, academic performance, and neurocognitive control in young Japanese women using a cross-sectional design. We analyzed the academic performance of female undergraduates, comparing underweight and healthy-weight groups (n = 43; age 18-23 years, M = 21.1, SD = 1.3) based on their grade point average (GPA). We also analyzed their error-related negativity (ERN), an electrophysiological measure that potentially reflects academic performance, during an arrowhead version of the flanker task to assess cognitive control of action monitoring. Participants with a low body mass index were found to have lower GPAs. Furthermore, the underweight students exhibited smaller ERN amplitudes, which indicates decreased cognitive control in action monitoring. These findings suggest that a healthy weight status is essential for effective cognitive functioning and academic success in young adult women, among whom being underweight is a serious health problem.

No intolerance of errors: The effect of intolerance of uncertainty on performance monitoring revisited

Errors have been conceptualized as internal forms of threat that can cause harm in unpredictable ways. An index of error processing is the error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential reflecting variability in the sensitivity to errors. Prior work has shown the relationship between psychopathology symptoms and the ERN is unclear, and may be moderated by intolerance of uncertainty (IU), a trait that captures how people react to unpredictability. IU includes two subfactors of prospective IU (active seeking of predictability) and inhibitory IU (behavioral paralysis). In the present study, 188 undergraduates performed an Eriksen flanker task designed to elicit the ERN, while brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG). Participants completed the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, Short Form (IUS-12), and other measures of anxiety, depression and worry. Total IU explained 5 % of the variance in correct-response negativity (CRN), but was not associated with the ERN in our sample. In contrast to previous findings, the IU subfactors did not predict the ERN or post-error slowing (PES), nor did total IU and depression interact to predict the ERN. Exploratory analyses also showed that total IU did not moderate the relationship between trait anxiety and the ERN. Small samples may have previously exaggerated the links between self-reported IU and the ERN. As such, further high-powered replications are required to confirm if, and how, they are related.

Dissociating the effect of reward uncertainty and timing uncertainty on neural indices of reward prediction errors: A reward positivity (RewP) event-related potential (ERP) study

Accurate reward predictions include forecasting both what a reward will be and when a reward will occur. We tested how variations in the certainty of reward outcome and certainty in timing of feedback presentation modulate neural indices of reward prediction errors using the reward positivity (RewP) component of the scalp-recorded brain event-related potential (ERP). In a within-subjects design, seventy-three healthy individuals completed two versions of a cued doors task; one cued the probability of a reward outcome while the other cued the probability of a delay before feedback. Replicating previous results, RewP amplitude was larger for uncertain feedback compared to certain feedback. Additionally, RewP amplitude was differentially associated with uncertainty of presence/absence of reward, but not uncertainty of feedback timing. Findings suggest a dissociation in that RewP amplitude is modulated by reward prediction certainty but is less affected by certainty surrounding timing of feedback.

The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and Scalp Event-Related Potentials: A Systematic Review

Several decades of behavioral research have established that variations in socioeconomic status (SES) are related to differences in cognitive performance. Neuroimaging and psychophysiological techniques have recently emerged as a method of choice to better understand the neurobiological processes underlying this phenomenon. Here we present a systematic review of a particular sub-domain of this field. Specifically, we used the PICOS approach to review studies investigating potential relationships between SES and scalp event-related brain potentials (ERP). This review found evidence that SES is related to amplitude variations in a diverse range of ERPs: P1, N1, N2, Error-Related Negativities (ERN), N400, auditory evoked potentials, negative difference waves (Nd), P3 and slow waves (SW). These ERPs include early, mid-latency and late potentials that reflect a broad range of cognitive processes (e.g., automatic attentional processes, overt attention, language, executive function, etc.). In this review, all SES effects on ERPs appeared to reflect an impairment or a less efficient form of task-related neural activity for low-SES compared to high-SES individuals. Overall, these results confirm that a wide variety of distinct neural processes with different functional meanings are sensitive to SES differences. The findings of this review also suggest that the relationship between SES and some ERP components may depend on the developmental stage of study participants. Results are further discussed in terms of the current limitations of this field and future avenues of research.