When the outcome is different than expected : subjective expectancy shapes reward prediction error at the FRN level

Converging evidence in human electrophysiology suggests that evaluative feedback provided during performance monitoring (PM) elicits two distinctive and successive ERP components: the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and the P3b. Whereas the FRN has previously been linked to reward prediction error (RPE), the P3b has been conceived as reflecting motivational or attentional processes following the early processing of the RPE, including action value updating. However, it remains unclear whether these two consecutive neurophysiological effects depend on the direction of the unexpectedness (better- or worse-than-expected outcomes; signed RPE) or instead only on the degree of unexpectedness irrespective of direction (i.e., unsigned RPE). To address this question, we devised an experiment in which we manipulated the objective reward probability and the subjective reward expectancy (via instructions) in a factorial within-subject design and explored amplitude changes of the FRN and the P3b. A 64-channel EEG was recorded while 32 participants performed a speeded go/no-go task in which evaluative feedback based on the reward probability either violated expectancy (thereby creating a RPE) or did not. This violation corresponded either to better- or worse-than-expected events. Results showed that the FRN was larger when RPE occurred than when it did not, but irrespective of the direction of this violation. Interestingly, in these two conditions, action value was updated for the positive feedback selectively, as shown by the P3b amplitude. These results obey a two-stage model of PM assuming that unsigned RPE is first rapidly detected (FRN level) before the positive feedback's value is updated selectively (P3b effect)

Goal impact influences the evaluative component of performance monitoring : evidence from ERPs

Successful performance monitoring (PM) requires continuous assessment of context and action outcomes. Electrophysiological studies have reliably identified event-related potential (ERP) markers for evaluative feedback processing during PM: the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) and P3 components. The functional significance of FRN remains debated in the literature, with recent research suggesting that feedback's goal relevance can account for FRN (amplitude) modulation, apart from its valence or expectedness alone. Extending this account, the present study assessed whether graded differentiations in feedback's relevance or importance to one's goal (referred to as goal impact) would influence PM at the FRN (and P3) level. To this end, we ran a within-subject crossover design experiment in which 40 participants completed two standard cognitive control tasks (Go/No Go and Simon), while 64-channel electroencephalography was recorded. Critically, both tasks entailed similar reward processing but systematically varied in goal impact assignment (high vs. low), manipulated through their supposed diagnosticity for daily life functioning and activation of social comparison. ERP results showed that goal impact reliably modulated FRN in a general manner. Irrespective of feedback valence, it was overall less negative in the high compared to the low impact condition, suggesting a general decrease in feedback monitoring in the former compared to the latter condition. These findings lend support to the idea that PM is best conceived operating not solely based on motor cues, but is shaped by motivational demands

Relevance and uncertainty jointly influence reward anticipation at the level of the SPN ERP component

The stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) component reflects the anticipatory phase of reward processing. Its amplitude is usually larger for informative compared to uninformative upcoming stimuli, as well as for uncertain relative to predictable ones. In this study, we sought to assess whether these two effects, when combined together, produced a synergistic effect or rather independent ones on the SPN during performance monitoring. Participants performed a speeded Go/NoGo task while 64-channel EEG was recorded concurrently. We focused on the SPN activity generated in anticipation of feedback, which was either positive (for correct and fast reactions) or negative (for correct but slow responses). Further, the feedback's informativeness about the satisfaction status of goals was alternated across blocks. When uncertainty about the action outcome was low (in conditions where positive feedback was either less or more frequent than negative feedback), the SPN amplitude (measured at fronto-central electrodes) did not vary as a function of feedback's relevance or valence. By comparison, when positive and negative feedback were equiprobable (uncertainty was high), the SPN was more pronounced for relevant compared to irrelevant feedback. Interestingly, in this condition, it was also larger at right fronto-central sites for positive than negative feedback. These ERP results suggest that both factors-relevance and uncertainty- combine and influence reward anticipation at the SPN level

Facing emotional faces : the nature of automaticity of facial emotion processing studied with ERPs

Neuroscientists use electroencephalography (EEG) and evoked potentials (ERPs) to track fast changes in brain activity and to investigate human affective and cognitive processes. Current experiments were run to inspect brain reactions to some affective faces: expressing happiness, fear, or anger. Results show that facial emotions can be processed rapidly and unintentionally. The most striking outcomes, however, demonstrate that facial expressions can be processed unconsciously (so when people claim that they have not seen anything, but their brains have ‘seen’), and that people with highly-anxious personality react oversensitively to facial affect. These results answer numerous questions about the nature of automatic facial emotion processing. And having in mind that they also describe some aspects of anxious personality, they have several clinical implications and can be further used to investigate the core aspects of anxiety-related disorders and their therapy

Attentional modulation of the emotional expression processing studied with ERPs and sLORETA

Recent ERP studies demonstrate that the processing of facial emotional expression can be modulated by attention. The aim of the present study was to investigate the neural correlates of attentional influence on the emotional expression processing at early stages. We recorded ERP responses to facial stimuli containing neutral versus emotional expression in two different conditions. The first task was to discriminate facial expressions, while the second task was to categorize face gender. Enhanced positivity at occipital and occipito-temporal locations between 110 and 170 ms poststimulus was elicited by facial stimuli presented in the expression task when compared to the gender task. This effect temporally overlapped with the P1 and N170 components, which reflect the early stages of face processing. To localize the sources of the brain activity underlying observed attentional modulation, we used Standardized Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography. Enhanced activity within the extrastriate cortex for the expression task was obtained as the reflection of early ERP effect. Additionally, we found stronger activation within the superior temporal and the fusiform gyrus of the right hemisphere in the expression task when compared to the gender task. Our findings undoubtedly confirm that early stages of the emotional expression processing can be modified by top-down attention. </jats:p

Trait anxiety and involuntary processing of facial emotions

There is suggestion that trait anxiety influences the processing of threat-related information. To test this hypothesis we recorded ERPs in response to subliminally presented and backward masked fearful and neutral faces, and non-face objects, in the preselected low- and high-anxious individuals. The amplitude of N170 was found to be larger when elicited by faces in comparison to non-faces, however it was not found to be emotion-sensitive or modulated by anxiety level. Differences between low- and high-anxious individuals appeared in a time window of the P1 component. At later stages, within the EPN component, stronger negativity specific for fearful faces was recorded exclusively in the low-anxious participants. Our findings indicate that anxiety level modulates early stages of information processing, as reflected in the P1 component. This leads to anxiety-related differences in involuntary emotional expression detection at later stages (EPN component)

Goal relevance influences performance monitoring at the level of the FRN and P3 components

The feedback-related negativity (FRN) provides a reliable ERP marker of performance monitoring (PM). It is usually larger for negative compared to positive feedback, and for unexpected relative to expected feedback. In two experiments, we assessed whether these effects could be modulated by goal relevance, defined as feedback informativeness (reliability) and/or impact on a person's goals. EEG (64-channel) was recorded while 30 participants (in each experiment) performed a speeded go/no-go task across blocks in which the feedback on task performance was deemed either relevant or not. At the ERP level, the FRN component was larger for (frequent) negative compared to (deviant) positive feedback exclusively when the feedback was relevant (Experiment 1). When the probability of positive and negative feedback was balanced (Experiment 2), this valence-driven FRN effect was absent. However, across these two experiments, the FRN was always larger for irrelevant than relevant feedback. Moreover, the subsequent P300 component was larger for feedback in the relevant than the irrelevant blocks. This effect was valence unspecific in Experiment 1, while in Experiment 2 larger P3 amplitudes were recorded for negative than positive (relevant) feedback. Across the two experiments, a larger correct-related negativity in the irrelevant than relevant context was also observed, suggesting that PM is flexible. These ERP findings indicate that goal relevance influences feedback (and response) processing during PM, with two nonoverlapping neurophysiological effects: It gates reward prediction error brain mechanisms (FRN effect), before enhancing subsequent motivational processes (P300 effect)

Goals matter : amplification of the motivational significance of the feedback when goal impact is increased

Performance monitoring (PM) entails the continuous evaluation of actions and their outcomes. At the electrophysiological level, PM has been consistently related to two event-related brain potentials (ERPs): the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) and the P3. In a previous within-subject crossover design study, we showed that feedback’s goal impact (i.e., its importance to one’s goal) modulated these ERP components, yet in opposing directions. Although high goal impact was associated with a larger P3, the preceding FRN had a lower amplitude than in the low impact condition. We sought to extend these findings here by adopting a between-subjects design for a pure goal impact manipulation. Sixty-eight participants completed a Go/No Go Task while 64-channel electroencephalography was recorded concurrently. They were randomly assigned to either a high or low goal impact condition, manipulated through instructions on the supposed task’s diagnosticity, while reward probability was kept similar between conditions. Replicating our previous results, we found that high goal impact yielded a marginally lower FRN, but substantially larger P3 during PM than low goal impact, without arousal or performance differences. Moreover, a principal component analysis confirmed these opposing directions of goal impact modulation. Overall, these results dovetail with the assumption that goal impact influences PM processes.status: publishe