Fischer Adrian G, Klein Tilmann A, Ullsperger Markus
Institute of Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
Psychophysiology. 2017 Jul;54(7):998-1009. doi: 10.1111/psyp.12863. Epub 2017 Apr 3.
The error-related negativity (ERN or Ne) is increasingly being investigated as a marker discriminating interindividual factors and moves toward a surrogate marker for disorders or interventions. Although reproducibility and validity of neuroscientific and psychological research has been criticized, clear data on how different quantification methods of the ERN and their relation to available trial numbers affect within- and across-participant studies is sparse. Within a large sample of 863 healthy human participants, we demonstrate that, across participants, the number of errors correlates with the amplitude of the ERN independently of the number of errors included in ERN quantification per participant, constituting a possible confound when such variance is unaccounted for. Additionally, we find that ERN amplitudes reach high consistency within participants at lower trial numbers, yet when comparisons between groups of participants are desired, increasing error-trial numbers lead to higher statistical power. We derive concrete suggestions for specific types of analyses, which may help researchers to more effectively design studies and analyze error-related EEG data with the most appropriate measurement technique for the question at hand and trial number available.
错误相关负波（ERN或Ne）作为区分个体间因素的标志物正受到越来越多的研究，并朝着疾病或干预的替代标志物发展。尽管神经科学和心理学研究的可重复性和有效性受到了批评，但关于ERN的不同量化方法及其与可用试验次数的关系如何影响个体内和个体间研究的明确数据却很少。在863名健康人类参与者的大样本中，我们证明，在所有参与者中，错误数量与ERN的幅度相关，而与每个参与者ERN量化中包含的错误数量无关，当这种差异未得到解释时，这可能构成一个混淆因素。此外，我们发现，在较低的试验次数下，ERN幅度在参与者内部达到高度一致性，然而，当需要对参与者组进行比较时，增加错误试验次数会带来更高的统计效力。我们针对特定类型的分析提出了具体建议，这可能有助于研究人员更有效地设计研究，并使用最适合手头问题和可用试验次数的测量技术来分析与错误相关的脑电图数据。
