Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242.
Cognitive Control Collaborative, University of Iowa, Iowa City Iowa, 52242.
J Neurosci. 2023 Nov 8;43(45):7678-7689. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1334-23.2023. Epub 2023 Oct 13.
The ability to adapt behavior after erroneous actions is one of the key aspects of cognitive control. Error commission typically causes people to slow down their subsequent actions [post-error slowing (PES)]. Recent work has challenged the notion that PES reflects adaptive, controlled processing and instead suggests that it is a side effect of the surprising nature of errors. Indeed, human neuroimaging suggests that the brain networks involved in processing errors overlap with those processing error-unrelated surprise, calling into question whether there is a specific system for error processing in the brain at all. In the current study, we used EEG decoding and a novel behavioral paradigm to test whether there are indeed unique, error-specific processes that contribute to PES beyond domain-general surprise. Across two experiments in male and female humans ( = 76), we found that both errors and error-unrelated surprise were followed by slower responses when response-stimulus intervals were short. Furthermore, the early neural processes following error-specific and domain-general surprise showed significant cross-decoding. However, at longer intervals, which provided additional processing time, only errors were still followed by post-trial slowing. Furthermore, this error-specific PES effect was reflected in sustained neural activity that could be decoded from that associated with domain-general surprise, with the strongest contributions found at lateral frontal, occipital, and sensorimotor scalp sites. These findings suggest that errors and surprise initially share common processes, but that after additional processing time, unique, genuinely error-specific processes take over and contribute to behavioral adaptation. Humans typically slow their actions after errors (PES). Some suggest that PES is a side effect of the unexpected, surprising nature of errors, challenging the notion of a genuine error processing system in the human brain. Here, we used multivariate EEG decoding to identify behavioral and neural processes uniquely related to error processing. Action slowing occurred following both action errors and error-unrelated surprise when time to prepare the next response was short. However, when there was more time to react, only errors were followed by slowing, further reflected in sustained neural activity. This suggests that errors and surprise initially share common processing, but that after additional time, error-specific, adaptive processes take over.
行为错误后适应行为的能力是认知控制的关键方面之一。错误通常会导致人们减慢后续动作的速度[事后错误减缓（PES）]。最近的工作挑战了 PES 反映适应性、受控处理的观点，而是表明它是错误的意外性质的副作用。事实上，人类神经影像学表明，处理错误所涉及的大脑网络与处理与错误无关的意外的大脑网络重叠，这使得人们质疑大脑中是否存在专门用于处理错误的系统。在当前的研究中，我们使用 EEG 解码和一种新的行为范式来测试 PES 是否确实存在独特的、特定于错误的过程，这些过程除了一般的惊喜之外，还对 PES 做出了贡献。在两个男性和女性人类的实验中（= 76），我们发现当反应-刺激间隔较短时，无论是错误还是与错误无关的惊喜都会导致反应较慢。此外，特定于错误和一般惊喜的早期神经过程显示出显著的交叉解码。然而，在较长的间隔内，即提供额外的处理时间，只有错误仍然会导致试验后减速。此外，这种特定于错误的 PES 效应反映在可以从与一般惊喜相关的活动中解码出来的持续神经活动中，在侧额、枕部和感觉运动头皮部位发现了最强的贡献。这些发现表明，错误和惊喜最初共享共同的过程，但在额外的处理时间后，独特的、真正特定于错误的过程会接管并有助于行为适应。人类通常在犯错后会减慢他们的行动（PES）。一些人认为 PES 是错误的意外、令人惊讶的性质的副作用，这挑战了人类大脑中存在真正的错误处理系统的观点。在这里，我们使用多元 EEG 解码来识别与错误处理唯一相关的行为和神经过程。当准备下一个反应的时间较短时，无论是动作错误还是与错误无关的惊喜都会导致动作减缓。然而，当有更多的时间做出反应时，只有错误会导致减速，这进一步反映在持续的神经活动中。这表明错误和惊喜最初共享共同的处理过程，但在额外的时间后，特定于错误的适应性过程会接管。
