Error awareness and salience processing in the oddball task: Shared neural mechanisms.

A body of work suggests that there are similarities in the way we become aware of an error and process motivationally salient events. Yet, evidence for a shared neural mechanism has not been provided. A within-subject investigation of the brain regions involved in error awareness and salience proces...

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Main Authors: Helga A Harsay, Marcus eSpaan, Jasper G Wijnen, K. Richard eRidderinkhof
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2012-08-01
Series:Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00246/full
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author Helga A Harsay
Marcus eSpaan
Jasper G Wijnen
K. Richard eRidderinkhof
author_facet Helga A Harsay
Marcus eSpaan
Jasper G Wijnen
K. Richard eRidderinkhof
author_sort Helga A Harsay
collection DOAJ
description A body of work suggests that there are similarities in the way we become aware of an error and process motivationally salient events. Yet, evidence for a shared neural mechanism has not been provided. A within-subject investigation of the brain regions involved in error awareness and salience processing has not been reported. While the neural response to motivationally salient events is classically studied during target detection after longer target-to-target intervals in an oddball task and engages a widespread insula-thalamo-cortical brain network, error awareness has recently been linked to, most prominently, anterior insula cortex. Here we explore whether the anterior insula activation for error awareness is related to salience processing, by testing for activation overlap in subjects undergoing two different task settings. Using a within-subjects design, we show activation overlap in six major brain areas during aware errors in an antisaccade task and during target detection (which were associated with longer target-to-target interval conditions) in an oddball task: anterior insula, anterior cingulate, supplementary motor area, thalamus, brainstem and parietal lobe. Within subject analyses shows that the insula is engaged in both error awareness and the processing of salience, and that the anterior insula is more involved in both processes than the posterior insula. The results of a fine-grained spatial pattern overlap analysis between active clusters in the same subjects indicated that even if the anterior insula is activated for both error awareness and salience processing, the two types of processes might tend to activate non-identical neural ensembles on a finer-grained spatial level. Together, these outcomes suggest a similar functional phenomenon in the two different task settings. Error awareness and salience processing share a functional anatomy, with a tendency towards subregional dorsal and ventral specialization within the anterior insula.
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spelling doaj.art-3d6d620c1fd64dba9ba46b260bbe44632022-12-22T01:59:15ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612012-08-01610.3389/fnhum.2012.0024624695Error awareness and salience processing in the oddball task: Shared neural mechanisms.Helga A Harsay0Marcus eSpaan1Jasper G Wijnen2K. Richard eRidderinkhof3University of AmsterdamUniversity of AmsterdamUniversity of AmsterdamUniversity of AmsterdamA body of work suggests that there are similarities in the way we become aware of an error and process motivationally salient events. Yet, evidence for a shared neural mechanism has not been provided. A within-subject investigation of the brain regions involved in error awareness and salience processing has not been reported. While the neural response to motivationally salient events is classically studied during target detection after longer target-to-target intervals in an oddball task and engages a widespread insula-thalamo-cortical brain network, error awareness has recently been linked to, most prominently, anterior insula cortex. Here we explore whether the anterior insula activation for error awareness is related to salience processing, by testing for activation overlap in subjects undergoing two different task settings. Using a within-subjects design, we show activation overlap in six major brain areas during aware errors in an antisaccade task and during target detection (which were associated with longer target-to-target interval conditions) in an oddball task: anterior insula, anterior cingulate, supplementary motor area, thalamus, brainstem and parietal lobe. Within subject analyses shows that the insula is engaged in both error awareness and the processing of salience, and that the anterior insula is more involved in both processes than the posterior insula. The results of a fine-grained spatial pattern overlap analysis between active clusters in the same subjects indicated that even if the anterior insula is activated for both error awareness and salience processing, the two types of processes might tend to activate non-identical neural ensembles on a finer-grained spatial level. Together, these outcomes suggest a similar functional phenomenon in the two different task settings. Error awareness and salience processing share a functional anatomy, with a tendency towards subregional dorsal and ventral specialization within the anterior insula.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00246/fullMagnetic Resonance ImagingAnterior Insulasalienceerror awarenesseyetrackingOddball processing
spellingShingle Helga A Harsay
Marcus eSpaan
Jasper G Wijnen
K. Richard eRidderinkhof
Error awareness and salience processing in the oddball task: Shared neural mechanisms.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Anterior Insula
salience
error awareness
eyetracking
Oddball processing
title Error awareness and salience processing in the oddball task: Shared neural mechanisms.
title_full Error awareness and salience processing in the oddball task: Shared neural mechanisms.
title_fullStr Error awareness and salience processing in the oddball task: Shared neural mechanisms.
title_full_unstemmed Error awareness and salience processing in the oddball task: Shared neural mechanisms.
title_short Error awareness and salience processing in the oddball task: Shared neural mechanisms.
title_sort error awareness and salience processing in the oddball task shared neural mechanisms
topic Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Anterior Insula
salience
error awareness
eyetracking
Oddball processing
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00246/full
work_keys_str_mv AT helgaaharsay errorawarenessandsalienceprocessingintheoddballtasksharedneuralmechanisms
AT marcusespaan errorawarenessandsalienceprocessingintheoddballtasksharedneuralmechanisms
AT jaspergwijnen errorawarenessandsalienceprocessingintheoddballtasksharedneuralmechanisms
AT kricharderidderinkhof errorawarenessandsalienceprocessingintheoddballtasksharedneuralmechanisms