Table 1.
Representative studies of ERN, N2 and P600.
| Author | Participants | Comorbidity | Medication | Paradigm | Main results | Multivariate comparison and/or additional measures? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ERN STUDIES | ||||||
| Gehring et al., 1993 | 6 HS | NR | NR | FT | ERN activity is enhanced when subjects strive for accurate performance but is diminished when subjects aim for response speed instead of accuracy | NO |
| Gehring et al., 2000 | 9 OCD, 9 controls | 7 = MD, PDA, AN, SP, AB. 2 = D, SO. 1 = PD, GA | Fluoxetine (2), Clomipramine (1), Sertraline (3) | Modified ST | Enhanced ERN in OCD patients. Correlates with symptom severity | NO |
| Johannes et al., 2001 | 10 OCD, 10 controls | No history of MD or SP | Not pharmacologically treated | A reaction time experiment | Enhanced ERN in OCD patients | P3b |
| Hajcak and Simons, 2002 | 18 HOCD, 17 LOCD | NR | NR | Modified ST | Enhanced ERN in OCD patients but no differences in performance between groups | NO |
| Hajcak et al., 2005 | 22 HS (exp.1), 18 HS (exp. 2) | NR | NR | FT with low/high value errors (exp. 1) –and evaluation/control conditions (exp. 2) | ERN was significantly larger on high-value trials in both experiments | NO |
| Hajcak et al., 2008 | Pre: 18 POCD, 18 controls//Post: 10 POCD, 13 controls | NR | Clomipramine (2), Sertraline (3), Escitalopram (4), Fluoxetine (1), Bupropion (2), Fluvoxamine (1) | Pre and post evaluation after cognitive behavior therapy. Modified simon task | ERN was larger in pediatric OCD patients before and after treatment. There was no relationship between ERN and symptom severity | NO |
| Endrass et al., 2008 | 20 OCD, 20 controls | AD (8), GA (5), PD(4) | Clomipramine (4), Paroxetine (2), Fluoxetine (1), Fluoxetine plus trimipramine (1), Venlafaxine (2) | FT (modified version) | OCD patients showed enhanced ERN amplitude on both error and correct trials. CRN amplitude correlates with symptom severity | CRN, Pe, behavioral correlations of performance monitoring |
| Endrass et al., 2010 | 22 OCD, 22 controls | MD (2), GA (2), PD (3) | Clomipramine (2), Sertaline (1), Fluoxetine (2), Mirtazapine (1), Fluvoxamine (1) | FT (modified version with standard and punishment conditions) | In the standard condition OCD patients had significantly larger ERN and CRN amplitudes than controls. No differences were found in the punishment condition. Controls showed an amplitude enhancement between standard and punishment conditions, while OCD patients did not | CRN, Pe |
| Grundler et al., 2009 (Study I) | 10 HOCD, 30 LOCD | NR | NR | PRT | Higher OCD symptoms predicted smaller ERNs | NO |
| Grundler et al., 2009 (Study II) | 14 HOCD, 16 LOCD (PRT)//18 HOCD, 18 LOCD (FT) | NR | NR | PRT, FT | High OCD group presented smaller ERN in a probabilistic task and larger ERN in a flanker task | NO |
| Bernstein et al., 1995 | 30 HS | NR | NR | A four-choice reaction time task | ERN was no longer than expected | NO |
| Falkenstein et al., 2000 | 24 HS | NR | NR | GN, FT | ERN had similar amplitude in tasks with a strong response conflict and tasks without any such conflict. ERN activity was found on correct trials | Pe |
| Van Veen and Carter, 2002b | 12 HS | NR | NR | FT | Reported significant differences between correct and error waveforms indicate that the ERN is significantly more negative than the waveform following correct responses | N2, Pe |
| Holroyd and Coles, 2002: Experiment 1 | 15 HS | NR | NR | PRT | ERN tended to be larger when the feedback stimulus disconfirmed, rather than confirmed, a prediction induced by a previous feedback stimulus | Psychophysiological experimentation and computational modeling |
| Holroyd and Coles, 2002: Experiment 2 | 15 HS | NR | NR | FT feedback informs the participants their accuracy and average speed | ERN amplitude was larger on frequent incompatible error trials than on infrequent compatible and infrequent incompatible error trials | Psychophysiological experimentation and computational modeling |
| Nieuwenhuis et al., 2005 | 16 OCD, 16 controls | NR | Paroxetine (5), Clomipramine (1), Citalopram (1), Fluvoxamine (1), Venlafaxine (1), Clonazepam (1) | PRT | The amplitude of the ERN associated with error and negative feedback was the same for OCD patients and controls | NO |
| Santesso et al., 2006 | 37 health children | NR | NR | FT | Parent-reported obsessive-compulsive behaviors were associated with larger ERN | CBCL, Pe |
| (De Bruijn et al., 2004) | 12 HS | No neuropsychiatric conditions | Medication free | FT | Amphetamine led to a strong enlargement of ERN amplitudes without affecting reaction times. Lorazepam led to reduced ERN amplitudes | D-amphetamine, lorazepam, mirtazapine or placebo was administered in a double-blind, four-way crossover design. |
| Riba et al., 2005a | 15 HS | Medical history, laboratory tests, electrocardiogram and urinalysis were normal | Medication free | FT | Yohimbine (adrenoceptor antagonist) led to both an increase in ERN amplitude and a significant reduction in action errors | 20 mg of yohimbine and a placebo were administered a double-blind randomized design (DBRD) |
| Riba et al., 2005b | 12 HS | Medical history, laboratory tests, electrocardiogram and urinalysis were normal | Medication free | FT | Alprazolam significantly reduced the amplitude of ERN and the number of correct responses and increased reaction time | N2, LRPs // Oral doses of 0.25 and 1.0 mg of alprazolam or placebo were administered in a DBRD |
| Anokhin et al., 2008 | Twins: 99 MZ and 175 DZ | Medical history was normal | Medication free | FT | Substantial heritability of ERN, CRN and Pe (40–60%), ERP showed significant genetic correlations among them | CRN, Pe |
| Riesel et al., 2011 | 30 OCD, 30 UFO, 30 HS | OCD: MD (4), SO (3), PD (1), GA (1), SP (2), BN (1), PD (3) | OCD: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (7), Tricyclic antidepressants (3) | FT | Both unaffected first-degree relatives and OCD patients showed increased ERN. ERN did not correlate with symptom severity | CRN |
| Ridderinkhof et al., 2002 | 14 SD | No history of neurological or psychiatric condition | Medication free | FT | The consumption of alcohol in moderate doses reduced participants' task error detection and ERN/N200 amplitudes | A double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized cross-over design |
| Holroyd et al., 1998 | 15 HS | NR | NR | FT | ERN is generated within the ACC | NO |
| Miltner et al., 2003 | 6 HS | NR | NR | GN, MG | Magnetic equivalent of the ERN and dipole source analysis evidenced ACC generators | NO |
| Stemmer et al., 2004 | 5 LACC, 11 controls | NR | NR | FT | Implication of the rostral ACC in ERN generation and also the results show that although subjects can be aware of errors, no ERN is produced | NO |
| N200 AND P600 STUDIES | ||||||
| Ciesielski et al., 2011 | 9 OCD, 9 controls | NR | NR | ST-WCIT (a high conflict variant) | Enhanced N200 amplitude and normal accuracy in OCD patients | NO |
| Kopp et al., 1996b | 18 HS | NR | NR | FT | The incongruent condition elicited a N200 component synchronized with an erroneous response. N200 amplitude covaried with the magnitude of the erroneous response | NO |
| Liotti et al., 2000 | 8 HS | No history of neurological or psychiatric illness | NR | ST | ST first activates anterior cingulated cortex (350–500 ms post-stimulus) followed by activation of the left temporal-parietal cortex, possibly due to the need for additional processing of word meaning | NO |
| Wang et al., 2000 | 15 HS | No history of neurological or psychiatric illness | NR | arithmetic problem and answer digit matched task | N200 elicited by incongruence among stimuli, while N270 evoked by a physical feature discrimination task and conflict or mental mismatching | N270 |
| Yeung et al., 2004 | 16 HS | NR | NR | FT | ERN and N2 shared a very similar scalp topography and neural source | ERN |
| Kopp et al., 1996a | 18 HS | NR | NR | Hybrid choice-reaction GN involving selective response priming | In no-go trials the N2 amplitude was influenced by selective response priming. The N2 was elicited in both go and no-go trials | LRP, P3 |
| Heil et al., 2000 | 18 HS | NR | NR | GN, FT | Target and flankers were assigned to different hands. The flankers primed by one hand were accompanied by a fronto-central amplitude modulation of the N200 | LRPs |
| Eimer, 1993 | 6 HS | NR | NR | A modified GN | No-go stimuli elicited larger N2 components than go stimuli. The N2 enhancement showed a frontal maximum | P3s |
| Beech et al., 1983 | 8 OCD, 8 controls | NR | Antidepressant medication was stopped 48 h before testing (3) | A task of varying complexity involving shape discrimination | Reduced amplitudes and decreased latencies of late EP components (N220 and P350) in OCD patients | P3 |
| Towey et al., 1993 | 17 OCD, 16 HS | Absence of major medical problems | Drug free for at least 2 weeks before testing | Auditory “oddball” stimuli | Lager N200 and P3 in OCD patients. Task difficulty increased N200 latencies for controls, but not for OCD patients | P300. |
| Papageorgiou and Rabavilas, 2003 | 20 OCD, 20 HS | Exclusion criteria: MD, GA | Drug free for at least 3 weeks for the time of evaluation | WST (Computerized version) | Enhanced amplitudes of P600 at the right temporoparietal area and prolonged latencies at the right parietal region in OCD patients. Memory performance was also significantly impaired | NO |
Participants HS, Healthy subjects; OCD, Obsessive-compulsive disorder patients; HOCD, subjects with high OC symptoms (but no OCD patients); LOCD, subjects with low OC symptoms (but no OCD patients); POCD, pediatric OCD; MZ, monozygotic; DZ, dizygotic; UFO, unaffected first degree relatives of OCD; SD, social drinkers (2–3 units per day on average); LACC, lesions in the ACC; FG, patients with lesions outside the frontal cortex; BG, lesions to the basal ganglia; OCT, orthopedic controls.
Comorbidity MD, major depression; PDA, panic disorder with agoraphobia; NA, anorexia nervosa; BN, bulimia nervosa; SP, specific phobia; AB, alcohol abuse; D, dysthymia; SO, social phobia; PD, panic disorder without agoraphobia; GA, generalized anxiety disorder; AD, affective disorder; PD, personality disorder.
Others NR, not reported in the paper; FT, Flanker Task; ST, Stroop Task; PRT, probabilistic reinforcement learning task; GN, Go/No go Task; WST, Wechsler digit span test; MG, magneto encephalography; CRN, correct related negativity; Pe, error positivity; LRPs, lateralized readiness potentials; CBCL, parents report form designed to assess children behaviors.