The Development of the Error-related Negativity (ERN) and Its Relationship with Anxiety: Evidence from 8 to 13 Year-olds

Overview

Journal Dev Cogn Neurosci

Publisher Elsevier

Specialties Neurology
Psychiatry

Date 2012 Feb 7

PMID 22308177

Citations 80

Authors

Alexandria Meyer

Anna Weinberg

Daniel N Klein

Greg Hajcak

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Because anxiety disorders appear to follow developmental trajectories that begin early in development, it may be useful to examine the neurodevelopmental correlates of specific cognitive processes that have been linked to anxiety. For instance, the error-related negativity (ERN) is a negative deflection in the event-related potential that is maximal approximately 50 ms following the commission of errors at fronto-central electrode sites,and has consistently been found to be more negative among anxious adults. Much less,however, is known about anxiety and the ERN in children—especially when this relationship develops. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) while 55 children aged 8–13 performed an arrow version of the flankers task. Parents and children both reported on children's anxiety. Results suggest that the relationship between the ERN and anxiety changes as a function of age. Among older children, a larger (i.e., more negative) ERN was significantly related to increased anxiety based on parent report. Although the relationship was less robust, the relationship between ERN and anxiety was opposite among younger children.These results are discussed in terms of existing work on anxiety and the ERN, and the need for longitudinal and developmental studies on the relationship between ERN andanxiety

Citing Articles

Sex Differences in the Associations Among Parenting, Socioeconomic Status, and Error Monitoring Among Adolescents.

Pirzada S, Valadez E Dev Psychobiol. 2025; 67(2):e70023.

PMID: 39935245 PMC: 11814918. DOI: 10.1002/dev.70023.

Maternal Social Phobia, but not Generalized Anxiety, Symptoms Interact with Early Childhood Error-Related Negativity to Prospectively Predict Child Anxiety Symptoms.

Nyman-Mallis T, Heffer R, Brooker R Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2025; .

PMID: 39760790 DOI: 10.1007/s10802-024-01284-9.

Emotion Regulation Moderates the Prospective Association between ERN and Anxiety in Early Adolescence: An Age-Specific Moderation of Cognitive Reappraisal but not Expressive Suppression.

Tan J, Liu P Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2024; 53(2):261-277.

PMID: 39585576 DOI: 10.1007/s10802-024-01263-0.

A network analysis of affective and motivational individual differences and error monitoring in a non-clinical sample.

Grabowska A, Sondej F, Senderecka M Cereb Cortex. 2024; 34(10).

PMID: 39462813 PMC: 11513196. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae397.

Flanker task parameters are related to the strength of association between the ERN and anxiety: a meta-analysis.

Buzzell G, Niu Y, Machado E, Dickinson R, Moser J, Morales S bioRxiv. 2024; .

PMID: 39253470 PMC: 11383315. DOI: 10.1101/2024.08.27.609944.

References

Falkenstein M, Hohnsbein J, Hoormann J, Blanke L . Effects of crossmodal divided attention on late ERP components. II. Error processing in choice reaction tasks. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1991; 78(6):447-55. DOI: 10.1016/0013-4694(91)90062-9. View

Chronis-Tuscano A, Degnan K, Pine D, Perez-Edgar K, Henderson H, Diaz Y . Stable early maternal report of behavioral inhibition predicts lifetime social anxiety disorder in adolescence. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2009; 48(9):928-935. PMC: 2789287. DOI: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e3181ae09df. View

Hajcak G, Moser J, Yeung N, Simons R . On the ERN and the significance of errors. Psychophysiology. 2005; 42(2):151-60. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2005.00270.x. View

Hogan A, Vargha-Khadem F, Kirkham F, Baldeweg T . Maturation of action monitoring from adolescence to adulthood: an ERP study. Dev Sci. 2005; 8(6):525-34. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.00444.x. View

Adleman N, Menon V, Blasey C, White C, Warsofsky I, Glover G . A developmental fMRI study of the Stroop color-word task. Neuroimage. 2002; 16(1):61-75. DOI: 10.1006/nimg.2001.1046. View

Falkenstein M, Hoormann J, Christ S, Hohnsbein J . ERP components on reaction errors and their functional significance: a tutorial. Biol Psychol. 2000; 51(2-3):87-107. DOI: 10.1016/s0301-0511(99)00031-9. View

Hajcak G, McDonald N, Simons R . Error-related psychophysiology and negative affect. Brain Cogn. 2004; 56(2):189-97. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2003.11.001. View

Fitzgerald K, Welsh R, Gehring W, Abelson J, Himle J, Liberzon I . Error-related hyperactivity of the anterior cingulate cortex in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Biol Psychiatry. 2005; 57(3):287-94. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2004.10.038. View

Nieuwenhuis S, Ridderinkhof K, Blom J, Band G, Kok A . Error-related brain potentials are differentially related to awareness of response errors: evidence from an antisaccade task. Psychophysiology. 2001; 38(5):752-60. View

10.

McClure E, Monk C, Nelson E, Parrish J, Adler A, Blair R . Abnormal attention modulation of fear circuit function in pediatric generalized anxiety disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007; 64(1):97-106. DOI: 10.1001/archpsyc.64.1.97. View

11.

Fox N, Nichols K, Henderson H, Rubin K, Schmidt L, Hamer D . Evidence for a gene-environment interaction in predicting behavioral inhibition in middle childhood. Psychol Sci. 2005; 16(12):921-6. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01637.x. View

12.

Mathalon D, Whitfield S, Ford J . Anatomy of an error: ERP and fMRI. Biol Psychol. 2003; 64(1-2):119-41. DOI: 10.1016/s0301-0511(03)00105-4. View

13.

Olvet D, Hajcak G . The error-related negativity (ERN) and psychopathology: toward an endophenotype. Clin Psychol Rev. 2008; 28(8):1343-54. PMC: 2615243. DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2008.07.003. View

14.

Casey B, Trainor R, Giedd J, Vauss Y, Vaituzis C, HAMBURGER S . The role of the anterior cingulate in automatic and controlled processes: a developmental neuroanatomical study. Dev Psychobiol. 1997; 30(1):61-9. View

15.

Hajcak G, McDonald N, Simons R . Anxiety and error-related brain activity. Biol Psychol. 2003; 64(1-2):77-90. DOI: 10.1016/s0301-0511(03)00103-0. View

16.

Cunningham M, Bhattacharyya S, Benes F . Amygdalo-cortical sprouting continues into early adulthood: implications for the development of normal and abnormal function during adolescence. J Comp Neurol. 2002; 453(2):116-30. DOI: 10.1002/cne.10376. View

17.

Weinberg A, Olvet D, Hajcak G . Increased error-related brain activity in generalized anxiety disorder. Biol Psychol. 2010; 85(3):472-80. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.09.011. View

18.

Ridderinkhof K, Ramautar J, Wijnen J . To P(E) or not to P(E): a P3-like ERP component reflecting the processing of response errors. Psychophysiology. 2009; 46(3):531-8. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00790.x. View

19.

Moser J, Hajcak G, Simons R . The effects of fear on performance monitoring and attentional allocation. Psychophysiology. 2005; 42(3):261-8. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2005.00290.x. View

20.

Santesso D, Segalowitz S, Schmidt L . Error-related electrocortical responses are enhanced in children with obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Dev Neuropsychol. 2006; 29(3):431-45. DOI: 10.1207/s15326942dn2903_3. View