Pietto Marcos Luis, Giovannetti Federico, Segretin María Soledad, Lipina Sebastián Javier, Kamienkowski Juan Esteban
Unidad de Neurobiología Aplicada (UNA), CEMIC-CONICET, Buenos Aires C1431, Argentina.
Laboratorio de Inteligencia Artificial Aplicada, Instituto de Ciencias de la Computación, FCEyN-UBA, CONICET, Buenos Aires C1428, Argentina.
Brain Sci. 2023 Mar 29;13(4):575. doi: 10.3390/brainsci13040575.
Preschool children show neural responses and make behavioral adjustments immediately following an error. However, there is a lack of evidence regarding how neural responses to error predict subsequent behavioral adjustments during childhood. The aim of our study was to explore the neural dynamics of error processing and associated behavioral adjustments in preschool children from unsatisfied basic needs (UBN) homes. Using EEG recordings during a go/no-go task, we examined within-subject associations between the error-related negativity (ERN), frontal theta power, post-error slowing, and post-error accuracy. Post-error accuracy increased linearly with post-error slowing, and there was no association between the neural activity of error processing and post-error accuracy. However, during successful error recovery, the frontal theta power, but not the ERN amplitude, was associated positively with post-error slowing. These findings indicated that preschool children from UBN homes adjusted their behavior following an error in an adaptive form and that the error-related theta activity may be associated with the adaptive forms of post-error behavior. Furthermore, our data support the adaptive theory of post-error slowing and point to some degree of separation between the neural mechanisms represented by the ERN and theta.
学龄前儿童在犯错后会立即表现出神经反应并做出行为调整。然而，关于儿童期对错误的神经反应如何预测随后的行为调整，目前缺乏证据。我们研究的目的是探讨来自基本需求未满足（UBN）家庭的学龄前儿童错误处理的神经动力学及相关行为调整。在一个“是/否”任务中使用脑电图记录，我们检查了错误相关负波（ERN）、额叶θ波功率、错误后反应减慢和错误后准确性之间的个体内关联。错误后准确性随错误后反应减慢呈线性增加，并且错误处理的神经活动与错误后准确性之间没有关联。然而，在成功的错误恢复过程中，额叶θ波功率而非ERN波幅与错误后反应减慢呈正相关。这些发现表明，来自UBN家庭的学龄前儿童在犯错后以一种适应性的方式调整他们的行为，并且与错误相关的θ活动可能与错误后行为的适应性形式有关。此外，我们的数据支持错误后反应减慢适应性理论，并指出ERN和θ所代表的神经机制之间存在一定程度的分离。
