A heart rate analysis of developmental change in feedback processing and rule shifting from childhood to early adulthood

Abstract

Over the course of development, the ability to switch between different tasks on the basis of feedback cues increases profoundly, but the role of performance monitoring remains unclear. Heart rate indexes can provide critical information about how individuals monitor feedback cues indicating that performance should be adjusted. In this study, children of three age groups (8-10, 12-14, and 16-18 years) performed a rule change task in which sorting rules needed to be detected following positive or negative feedback. The number of perseverative errors was lower for 16- to 18-year-olds than for 8- to 10-year-olds, and 12- to 14-year-olds performed at an intermediate level. Consistent with previous findings, heart rate slowed following feedback indicating a rule change, and the magnitude of slowing was similar for all age groups. Thus, 8- to 10-year-olds are already able to analyze feedback cues. In contrast, 12- to 14-year-olds and 16- to 18-year-olds, but not 8- to 10-year-olds, showed heart rate slowing following performance errors, suggesting that with age children are increasingly able to monitor their performance online. Performance monitoring may therefore be an important contributor to set-shifting ability.

Life Span Differences in Electrophysiological Correlates of Monitoring Gains and Losses during Probabilistic Reinforcement Learning

“…This stronger reaction to external feedback in children as compared with adult age groups is assumed to be compensatory and related to a not-yet-fully-developed ability of children to exert internal motor control (Luna & Sweeney, 2004). In line with these considerations, the stronger reaction to feedback or cue stimuli in children has been attributed to a greater sensitivity to external as compared with internal feedback (Crone, Somsen, Zanolie, & van der Molen, 2006).…”

“…Hence, the amplitude of the FRN differentiated less well between gains and losses in both children and older adults than in younger adults, although children showed the largest FRN response in general. This pattern suggests that despite the apparent stronger sensitivity to external feedback in children (Eppinger et al, 2009;Crone et al, 2006), the focus of the maturing outcome monitoring system does not yet yield a differentiated classification of the outcomes with respect to the individual task goals.…”

Neural Correlates of Feedback Processing in Toddlers

“…During brain development, ACC shows a protracted maturation compared with more posterior brain regions (Casey, Tottenham, Liston, & Durston, 2005;Gogtay et al, 2004). Besides structural maturation, ACC also shows developmental change in functionality (e.g., for processing the informative value of feedback) until late adolescence (Crone, Zanolie, van Leijenhorst, Westenberg, & Rombouts, 2008;Crone, Somsen, Zanolie, & van der Molen, 2006). Together, these findings suggest an immaturity of brain structures and functions related to feedback processing in early childhood.…”

Neural mechanisms supporting flexible performance adjustment during development

“…Developmental changes are observed in error monitoring until late adolescence, but different processes and associated neural circuitry may account for these differences. Thus, we examined feedback sensitivity in childhood (8-11 years), adolescence (14-15 years), and adulthood (18-25 years) using a child-friendly WCST-like feedback monitoring task (Crone, Somsen, Zanolie, & van der Molen, 2006) previously shown to be sensitive to process dissociability in the areas under study (Zanolie et al, 2008).…”

“…However, we previously examined the development of feedback processing in children ages 8-10 and 11-12 and in adults in rule-learning paradigms using heart rate measures (Crone, Jennings, & van der Molen, 2004;Crone, Somsen, et al, 2006). These studies demonstrated that the presentation of negative feedback is associated with slowing of the subsequent heartbeat.…”