TY - JOUR
T1 - A computational account of altered error processing in older age: Dopamine and the error-related negativity
AU - Nieuwenhuis, Sander
AU - Ridderinkhof, K. Richard
AU - Talsma, D.
AU - Coles, Michael G.H.
AU - Holroyd, Clay B.
AU - Kok, Albert
AU - van der Molen, Maurits W.
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - When participants commit errors or receive feedback signaling that they have made an error, a negative
brain potential is elicited. According to Holroyd and Coles’s (in press) neurocomputational model of error
processing, this error-related negativity (ERN) is elicited when the brain first detects that the consequences
of an action are worse than expected. To study age-related changes in error processing, we obtained
performance and ERN measures of younger and high-functioning older adults. Experiment 1
demonstrated reduced ERN amplitudes in older adults in the context of otherwise intact brain potentials.
This result could not be attributed to uncertainty about the required response in older adults. Experiment
2 revealed impaired performance and reduced response- and feedback-related ERNs of older
adults in a probabilistic learning task. These age changes could be simulated by manipulation of a single
parameter of the neurocomputational model, this manipulation corresponding to weakened phasic activity
of the mesencephalic dopamine system
AB - When participants commit errors or receive feedback signaling that they have made an error, a negative
brain potential is elicited. According to Holroyd and Coles’s (in press) neurocomputational model of error
processing, this error-related negativity (ERN) is elicited when the brain first detects that the consequences
of an action are worse than expected. To study age-related changes in error processing, we obtained
performance and ERN measures of younger and high-functioning older adults. Experiment 1
demonstrated reduced ERN amplitudes in older adults in the context of otherwise intact brain potentials.
This result could not be attributed to uncertainty about the required response in older adults. Experiment
2 revealed impaired performance and reduced response- and feedback-related ERNs of older
adults in a probabilistic learning task. These age changes could be simulated by manipulation of a single
parameter of the neurocomputational model, this manipulation corresponding to weakened phasic activity
of the mesencephalic dopamine system
KW - IR-73387
U2 - 10.3758/CABN.2.1.19
DO - 10.3758/CABN.2.1.19
M3 - Article
VL - 2
SP - 19
EP - 36
JO - Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience
JF - Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience
SN - 1530-7026
IS - 1
ER -