Temporal dynamics of error-related corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major activity: Evidence for implicit emotion regulation following errors

Abstract

According to feedback control models, errors are monitored and inform subsequent control adaptations. Despite these cognitive consequences, errors also have affective consequences. It has been suggested that errors elicit negative affect which might be functional for control adaptations. The present research is concerned with the temporal dynamics of error-related affect. Therefore, we ask how affective responses to errors change over time. Two experiments assessed performance in a Stroop-like task in combination with online measures of facial electromyography that index affective responses specific for muscles that are associated with the expression of negative (corrugator supercilii) and positive affect (zygomaticus major). After errors, corrugator activity first increased relative to correct trials but then decreased (below correct trials) for later time bins. Zygomaticus activity showed a concomitant inverse pattern following errors, such that an initial decrease was followed by a later increase relative to correct trials. Together, this biphasic response in both facial muscles suggests that early negative responses to errors turn into increasingly more positive ones over time. Error-triggered electromyography did marginally predict behavioral adjustments following errors at the inter-individual, but not at the intra-individual level, providing only limited evidence for a functional role of error-related affect for immediate changes in behavior. However, the dynamics of error-related electromyography points to the role of implicit emotion regulation during task performance. We propose that this process helps to maintain homeostasis of positive and negative affect which in the long term could facilitate adaptive behavior.

The face of control: Corrugator supercilii tracks aversive conflict signals in the service of adaptive cognitive control

“…However, our findings contrast with traditional measures of neural conflict processes recorded at the scalp which typically precede the response Larson, Clayson, & Clawson, 2014). Moreover, for conflict trials, we did not observe the typical biphasic response observed for errors, in which the initial aversive facial EMG response is rapidly reversed at the order of half a second later-an effect we have argued to reflect implicit emotion regulation (Dignath et al, 2019). The fact that the sustained post-response effect correlates with conflict adaption suggests that conflict-even though successfully resolved-has an aversive after-effect that helps to prepare cognitive control processes in the subsequent trial (cf.…”

“…Recent work has also shown that the facial EMG is sensitive to affective processes during cognitive tasks. In particular, it has been shown that the corrugator is reliably activated by errors (Elkins‐Brown, Saunders, He, & Inzlicht, ; Elkins‐Brown, Saunders, & Inzlicht, ; Lindström, Mattson‐Mårn, Golkar, Olsson, ; Dignath, Berger, Spruit, & van Steenbergen, ). The corrugator also responds to low levels of processing fluency, for example, if stimuli are difficult to process due to perceptual or conceptual features such as a low figure‐ground contrast, short presentation duration, or low semantic coherence (Cannon, Hayes, & Tipper, ; Forster, Leder, & Ansorge, ; Gerger, Leder, Tinio, & Schacht, ; Topolinski, Likowski, Weyers, & Strack, , Winkielman & Cacioppo, ).…”

Acute effects of alcohol on error-elicited negative affect during a cognitive control task

“…Hypothesis 1 was supported, replicating previous work on error-elicited cEMG activity (Berger et al, 2020;Dignath et al, 2019;Elkins-Brown et al, 2016, 2017Lindström et al, 2013). Hypothesis 2 was also supported, providing empirical weight to the idea that alcohol consumption might decrease negative affective reactions to erroneous actions in effortdemanding cognitive control tasks, as first proposed by Bartholow et al (2012).…”

How to measure post-error slowing: The case of pre-error speeding

“…Basic research on error processing has leveraged a range of behavioral and physiological markers to capture error detection and subsequent adaptations to cognition and action (Dignath et al, 2019;Falkenstein et al, 2000;Fiehler et al, 2005;Gehring et al, 2012;Steinhauser et al, 2017). Among these measures, post-error slowingi.e., the observation of prolonged response times following a commission error in choice reaction taskscomes with a particularly long history in the field.…”