Immediate and delayed auditory feedback in declarative learning: An examination of the feedback related event related potentials

The effect of feedback timing on category learning and feedback processing in younger and older adults

Introduction

Corrective feedback can be received immediately after an action or with a temporal delay. Neuroimaging studies suggest that immediate and delayed feedback are processed by the striatum and medial temporal lobes (MTL), respectively. Age-related changes in the striatum and MTL may influence the efficiency of feedback-based learning in older adults. The current study leverages event-related potentials (ERPs) to evaluate age-related differences in immediate and delayed feedback processing and consequences for learning. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) captures activity in the frontostriatal circuit while the N170 is hypothesized to reflect MTL activation.

Methods

18 younger (Myears  = 24.4) and 20 older (Myears  = 65.5) adults completed learning tasks with immediate and delayed feedback. For each group, learning outcomes and ERP magnitudes were evaluated across timing conditions.

Results

Younger adults learned better than older adults in the immediate timing condition. This performance difference was associated with a typical FRN signature in younger but not older adults. For older adults, impaired processing of immediate feedback in the striatum may have negatively impacted learning. Conversely, learning was comparable across groups when feedback was delayed. For both groups, delayed feedback was associated with a larger magnitude N170 relative to immediate feedback, suggesting greater MTL activation.

Discussion and conclusion

Delaying feedback may increase MTL involvement and, for older adults, improve category learning. Age-related neural changes may differentially affect MTL- and striatal-dependent learning. Future research can evaluate the locus of age-related learning differences and how feedback can be manipulated to optimize learning across the lifespan.

Declarative Learning Mechanisms Support Declarative but Not Probabilistic Feedback-Based Learning in Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)

Declarative and probabilistic feedback-based learning was evaluated in 8-12-year-old school-age children with developmental language disorder (DLD; n = 14) and age-matched children with typical development (TD; n = 15). Children performed a visual two-choice word-learning task and a visual probabilistic classification task while their electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded non-invasively from the scalp. Behavioral measures of accuracy and response to feedback, and electrophysiological responses to feedback were collected and compared between the two groups. While behavioral data indicated poorer performance by children with DLD in both learning paradigms, and similar response patterns to positive and negative feedback, electrophysiological data highlighted processing patterns in the DLD group that differed by task. More specifically, in this group, feedback processing in the context of declarative learning, which is known to be dominated by the medial temporal lobe (MTL), was associated with enhanced N170, an event-related brain potential (ERP) associated with MTL activation. The N170 amplitude was found to be correlated with declarative task performance in the DLD group. During probabilistic learning, known to be governed by the striatal-based learning system, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) ERP, which is the product of the cortico-striatal circuit dominated feedback processing. Within the context of probabilistic learning, enhanced N170 was associated with poor learning in the TD group, suggesting that MTL activation during probabilistic learning disrupts learning. These results are interpreted within the context of a proposed feedback parity hypothesis suggesting that in children with DLD, the system that dominates learning (i.e., MTL during declarative learning and the striatum during probabilistic learning) dominates and supports feedback processing.

Learning new words via feedback-Association between feedback-locked ERPs and recall performance-An exploratory study

Feedback learning is thought to involve the dopamine system and its projection sites in the basal ganglia and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), regions associated with procedural learning. Under certain conditions, such as when feedback is delayed, feedback-locked activation is pronounced in the medial temporal lobe (MTL), which is associated with declarative learning. In event-related potential research, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) has been linked to immediate feedback processing, while the N170, possibly reflecting MTL activity, has been related to delayed feedback processing. In the current study, we performed an exploratory investigation on the relation between N170 and FRN amplitude and memory performance in a test for declarative memory (free recall), also exploring the role of feedback delay. To this end, we adapted a paradigm in which participants learned associations between non-objects and non-words with either immediate or delayed feedback, and added a subsequent free recall test. We indeed found that N170, but not FRN amplitudes, depended on later free recall performance, with smaller amplitudes for later remembered non-words. In an additional analysis with memory performance as dependent variable, the N170, but not the FRN amplitude predicted free recall, modulated by feedback timing and valence. This finding shows that the N170 reflects an important process during feedback processing, possibly related to expectations and their violation, but is distinct from the process reflected by the FRN.

The contribution of theta and delta to feedback processing in children with developmental language disorder

PURPOSE

The study aimed at evaluating feedback processing at the electrophysiological level and its relation to learning in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) to further advance our understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms of feedback-based learning in children with this disorder.

METHOD

A feedback-based probabilistic learning task required children to classify novel cartoon animals into two categories that differ on five binary features, the probabilistic combination of which determined classification. The learning outcomes' variance in relation to time- and time-frequency measures of feedback processing were examined and compared between 20 children with developmental language disorder and 25 age-matched children with typical language development.

RESULTS

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) performed poorer on the task when compared with their age-matched peers with typical language development (TD). The electrophysiological data in the time domain indicated no differences in the processing of positive and negative feedback among children with DLD. However, the time-frequency analysis revealed a strong theta activity in response to negative feedback in this group, suggesting an initial distinction between positive and negative feedback that was not captured by the ERP data. In the TD group, delta activity played a major role in shaping the FRN and P3a and was found to predict test performance. Delta did not contribute to the FRN and P3a in the DLD group. Additionally, theta and delta activities were not associated with the learning outcomes of children with DLD.

CONCLUSION

Theta activity, which is associated with the initial processing of feedback at the level of the anterior cingulate cortex, was detected in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) but was not associated with their learning outcomes. Delta activity, which is assumed to be generated by the striatum and to be linked to elaborate processing of outcomes and adjustment of future actions, contributed to processing and learning outcomes of children with typical language development but not of children with DLD. The results provide evidence for atypical striatum-based feedback processing in children with DLD.

The auditory brain in action: Intention determines predictive processing in the auditory system-A review of current paradigms and findings

According to the ideomotor theory, action may serve to produce desired sensory outcomes. Perception has been widely described in terms of sensory predictions arising due to top-down input from higher order cortical areas. Here, we demonstrate that the action intention results in reliable top-down predictions that modulate the auditory brain responses. We bring together several lines of research, including sensory attenuation, active oddball, and action-related omission studies: Together, the results suggest that the intention-based predictions modulate several steps in the sound processing hierarchy, from preattentive to evaluation-related processes, also when controlling for additional prediction sources (i.e., sound regularity). We propose an integrative theoretical framework—the extended auditory event representation system (AERS), a model compatible with the ideomotor theory, theory of event coding, and predictive coding. Initially introduced to describe regularity-based auditory predictions, we argue that the extended AERS explains the effects of action intention on auditory processing while additionally allowing studying the differences and commonalities between intention- and regularity-based predictions—we thus believe that this framework could guide future research on action and perception.

Learning to deal with delayed outcomes: EEG oscillatory and slow potentials during the prefeedback interval

It is well established that the stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) decreases in amplitude as a task is mastered, a phenomenon generally attributed to the reduction in anticipatory attention as feedback becomes less needed. Typically, the experiments supporting this assumption have used relatively short delays (<3 s). However, we found in a previous study that this decline in amplitude, although present during the 2.5-s prefeedback delay of a patterned key-pressing task, was absent with an 8-s delay. We reexamined this finding using a 6-s delay and found that the SPN diminished at frontal sites as participants learned a sequence of four keypress durations, but that this modulation was limited to the early half of the delay (maximum at 2 s). Decline of lateralized sensorimotor theta activity across trials was also limited to early portions of the delay. These findings suggest that processes other than anticipatory attention to feedback may be more relevant for explaining SPN diminution. Such processes could include adjustment and maintenance of action-outcome expectancies (e.g., forward models) during the prefeedback interval.

Electrophysiological Examination of Feedback-Based Learning in 8-11-Year-Old Children

The study aimed at evaluating the extent to which the feedback related negativity (FRN), an ERP component associated with feedback processing, is related to learning in school-age children. Eighty typically developing children between the ages of 8 and 11 years completed a declarative learning task while their EEG was recorded. The study evaluated the predictive value of the FRN on learning retention as measured by accuracy on a follow-up test a day after the session. The FRN elicited by positive feedback was found to be predictive of learning retention in children. The relationship between the FRN and learning was moderated by age. The P3a was also found to be associated with learning, such that larger P3a to negative feedback was associated with better learning retention in children.

The effect of task difficulty on feedback processing in children

The study evaluated the effect of task difficulty on feedback processing as measured by the feedback related event related potentials (ERPs) in 7-11-years-old children. Children completed two declarative learning tasks that differed in the number of object-name pairs they were required to learn, deeming the task with twice as many pairs as more difficult. EEG was recorded during the tasks, and event related potentials time-locked to the feedback presentation were analyzed. Additionally, Accuracy was measured in test block at the end of each task. Behaviorally, children achieved better accuracy on the easy task than on the difficult task. In line with previous findings in adults, the FRN was not found sensitive to task difficulty. However, a feedback-related P300 and a fronto-central positivity that followed the FRN were found sensitive to task difficulty such that their amplitudes were larger in the easy task. This pattern is opposite to that reported previously in adults and may reflect the effect of motivation on attention allocation in children.