Brain Activity Elicited by Positive and Negative Feedback in Preschool-Aged Children

Abstract

To investigate the processing of positive vs. negative feedback in children aged 4–5 years, we devised a prize-guessing game that is analogous to gambling tasks used to measure feedback-related brain responses in adult studies. Unlike adult studies, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) elicited by positive feedback was as large as that elicited by negative feedback, suggesting that the neural system underlying the FRN may not process feedback valence in early childhood. In addition, positive feedback, compared with negative feedback, evoked a larger P1 over the occipital scalp area and a larger positive slow wave (PSW) over the right central-parietal scalp area. We believe that the PSW is related to emotional arousal and the intensive focus on positive feedback that is present in the preschool and early school years has adaptive significance for both cognitive and emotional development during this period.

Comparing Self-Regulation-Associated Event Related Potentials in Preschool Children with and without High Levels of Disruptive Behavior

“…A baseline correction was performed with baselines specified as follows: −200 to −100ms prior to response onset for ERN and CRN, Pe and Pc segments, −100 to 0ms for FRN (positive and negative feedback) segments, and −100ms to 0ms prior to stimulus onset for Go and No-go N2 segments. Based on initial visual inspection of the grand averaged ERPs, and in accordance with previously published reports (Espinet, Anderson, & Zelazo, 2012; Grammer et al, 2014; Mai et al, 2011), we defined ERP component windows of interest as the following: The ERN was defined as the average amplitude between −25 and 50ms aligned with response onset. The Pe was defined as the average amplitude between 200 and 500ms after the response onset.…”

“…Mai and colleagues (2011) used a prize-guessing task to examine the FRN in 4- and 5-year-old children, and found no difference in amplitude between positive and negative outcomes. Roos, Pears, Bruce, Kim, and Fisher (2014) examined the FRN in a performance-based flanker task in a sample of maltreated preschool children, and found larger FRN amplitudes for negative outcomes, but only in children who were also high in impulsivity.…”

Neural Correlates of Feedback Processing in Toddlers

“…Although their results on ERP latency were coherent with our findings, Mai and colleagues (2011) were unable to find indications of a distinction with respect to outcome correctness. This discrepancy might be because of the different feedback-reward procedures used in their study (see Mai et al, 2011). Mai and colleagues (2011) used a game in which childrenʼs actions were always rewarded with a prize, with the outcomes varying between "nicest" and "least nice" prizes, based on individual rank ordering.…”

Adult-like neuroelectrical response to inequity in children: Evidence from the ultimatum game

“…Despite the fact that, to our knowledge, the MFN has not yet been detected in children, other related components such as the N2 (Lukie, Montazer-Hojat, & Holroyd, 2014), feedback-related negativity (FRN; Mai et al, 2011), and error-related negativity (ERN; Wiersema, Van Der Meere, & Roeyers, 2007) have already been reported in children. These components, also related to unexpected outcomes detection, are considered to have the same anatomical source of MFN, namely the ACC.…”

“…Particularly with regard to the UG the MFN points to spontaneous processing of unfairness, indicating that children's perception and behavior are already driven by expectations of fair interactions. Previous studies had already investigated components related to MFN, such as N2 (Lukie et al, 2014), FRN (Mai et al, 2011), and ERN (Wiersema et al, 2007) in children as well. These studies have found similarities between adults and children with regard to the effects modulating these components, with an overall difference only in amplitude (Lukie et al, 2014).…”