Department of Psychology, 101B Child Study Center, University Support Building I, 810 North University Drive, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, United States.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2011 Apr;1(2):141-51. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2010.12.002.
Despite recent evidence that neural correlates of error monitoring such as the error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) are visible in children sooner than previously thought, little is known about these components early in life. Error-monitoring components can be noninvasively recorded from a very early age and have been proposed as biological markers of risk for psychopathology. Therefore, the current study represents an attempt to examine the presence of these components in a sample of very young children and explore their associations with affect and attentional control.Fifteen children between ages 4 and 8 participated in two laboratory episodes: interacting with a stranger and completing a computerized flanker task. Shy and bold behaviors were scored during the stranger interaction and parents reported on temperament-based affective behaviors. Both ERN and Pe were visible in children as young as age 4. A trend-level interaction was observed between age and gender in association with ERN amplitudes. Age and gender were unrelated to the Pe. Greater ERN and Pe were associated with better poorer orienting and greater attentional focusing, respectively. Greater Pe was also linked to less observed boldness. Implications for studies of the development of performance monitoring in children are discussed.
尽管最近有证据表明，错误监控的神经相关物，如错误相关负波（ERN）和错误正波（Pe），在儿童中的出现时间比之前认为的要早，但对于生命早期的这些成分知之甚少。错误监控成分可以从非常早期就进行非侵入性记录，并被提议作为精神病理学风险的生物标志物。因此，本研究试图在一组非常年幼的儿童中检查这些成分的存在，并探讨它们与情绪和注意力控制的关系。15 名年龄在 4 至 8 岁之间的儿童参与了两个实验室实验：与陌生人互动和完成计算机化的侧抑制任务。在陌生人互动期间对害羞和大胆行为进行评分，父母则根据基于气质的情感行为进行报告。年龄在 4 岁的儿童中就可以看到 ERN 和 Pe。年龄和性别与 ERN 幅度之间存在趋势性相互作用。年龄和性别与 Pe 无关。较大的 ERN 和 Pe 分别与更好或更差的定向和更大的注意力集中有关。更大的 Pe 也与观察到的大胆行为减少有关。讨论了对儿童表现监控发展的研究的影响。
