Faculty Collaboration Database

Externalizing psychopathology and gain-loss feedback in a simulated gambling task: dissociable components of brain response revealed by time-frequency analysis. J Abnorm Psychol 2011 May;120(2):352-64

Date

02/16/2011

Pubmed ID

21319875

Pubmed Central ID

PMC3092030

DOI

10.1037/a0022124

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-79951836953 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   129 Citations

Abstract

Externalizing is a broad construct that reflects propensity toward a variety of impulse control problems, including antisocial personality disorder and substance use disorders. Two event-related potential responses known to be reduced among individuals high in externalizing proneness are the P300, which reflects postperceptual processing of a stimulus, and the error-related negativity (ERN), which indexes performance monitoring based on endogenous representations. In the current study, the authors used a simulated gambling task to examine the relation between externalizing proneness and the feedback-related negativity (FRN), a brain response that indexes performance monitoring related to exogenous cues, which is thought to be highly related to the ERN. Time-frequency (TF) analysis was used to disentangle the FRN from the accompanying P300 response to feedback cues by parsing the overall feedback-locked potential into distinctive theta (4-7 Hz) and delta (<3 Hz) TF components. Whereas delta-P300 amplitude was reduced among individuals high in externalizing proneness, theta-FRN response was unrelated to externalizing. These findings suggest that in contrast with previously reported deficits in endogenously based performance monitoring (as indexed by the ERN), individuals prone to externalizing problems show intact monitoring of exogenous cues (as indexed by the FRN). The results also contribute to a growing body of evidence indicating that the P300 is attenuated across a broad range of task conditions in high-externalizing individuals.

Author List

Bernat EM, Nelson LD, Steele VR, Gehring WJ, Patrick CJ

Author

Lindsay D. Nelson PhD Associate Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adolescent
Brain
Brain Mapping
Event-Related Potentials, P300
Feedback, Psychological
Female
Gambling
Humans
Male
Mental Disorders
Time Factors
Young Adult