The Phenomenology of Error Processing: The Dorsal ACC Response to Stop-signal Errors Tracks Reports of Negative Affect

Abstract

Abstract■ A reliable observation in neuroimaging studies of cognitive control is the response of dorsal ACC (dACC) to events that demand increased cognitive control (e.g., response conflicts and performance errors). This observation is apparently at odds with a comparably reliable association of the dACC with the subjective experience of negative affective states such as pain, fear, and anxiety. Whereas "affective" associates of the dACC are based on studies that explicitly manipulate and/or measure the subjective experience of negative affect, the "cognitive" associates of dACC are based on studies using tasks designed to manipulate the demand for cognitive control, such as the Stroop, flanker, and stop-signal tasks. Critically, extant neuroimaging research has not systematically considered the extent to which these cognitive tasks induce negative affective experiences and, if so, to what extent negative affect can account for any variance in the dACC response during task performance. While undergoing fMRI, participants in this study performed a stop-signal task while regularly reporting their experience of performance on several dimensions. We observed that within-subject variability in the dACC response to stop-signal errors tracked changes in subjective frustration throughout task performance. This association remained when controlling for within-subject variability in subjective reports of cognitive engagement and several performance-related variables indexing task difficulty. These results fit with existing models characterizing the dACC as a hub for monitoring ongoing behavior and motivating adjustments when necessary and further emphasize that such a function may be linked to the subjective experience of negative affect. ■

Brain systems underlying the affective and social monitoring of actions: An integrative review

“…For example, response errors during a flanker task yield larger skin conductance responses and greater heart rate deceleration than correct decisions (Hajcak et al, 2003b), as well as a larger potentiation of the startle reflex (Foti and Hajcak, 2009). These findings suggest that response errors may be perceived as aversive and distressing events (Spunt et al, 2012), which are associated with enhanced arousal and increased activation of the autonomic nervous system (Hajcak et al, 2003b).…”

Social Pain and the Brain: Controversies, Questions, and Where to Go from Here

“…Results from cognitive neuroscience research showing that the dACC is critical for conflict monitoring and discrepancy detection (Botvinick et al 2001) combined with findings from pain and affective neuroscience research showing that the dACC is critical for the unpleasantness of physical pain (Apkarian et al 2005, Eisenberger & Lieberman 2004, Shackman et al 2011 suggest that the dACC may function as a type of neural alarm system (Eisenberger & Lieberman 2004, Spunt et al 2012. For an alarm system (e.g., a smoke alarm) to function properly, two components are needed: a discrepancy detection system that monitors for deviations from desired standards (e.g., too much smoke) and a sounding mechanism (e.g., an alarm bell ringing) that alerts one to the fact that there is a problem that needs to be addressed.…”

“…In addition, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown that dACC responses to cognitive performance tasks are positively correlated with autonomic responses (Critchley et al 2005) and the self-reported desire to avoid a task (McGuire & Botvinick 2010). Finally, a recent study demonstrated that within-subject variability in dACC responses to error trials on a stop-signal task correlated directly with self-reports of negative affective responses to the task (Spunt et al 2012). Thus, across multiple studies, individual differences in neural sensitivity to discrepancies or errors have been shown to correlate directly with various measures of negative affective experience, supporting the alarm system model.…”

Acetaminophen attenuates error evaluation in cortex

“…We additionally included three extra items in both versions of the PANAS: Frustrated, anxious, and unpleasant (along with 'attentive' which is already in the PANAS). The second PANAS administration and added words were used to address concerns raised by Spunt et al (2012) that people are better able to articulate their feelings relative to an actual event and that these particular words were more informative than a broad survey of negative affect.…”