The effects of social exclusion on the ERN and the cognitive control of action monitoring

Psychophysiology. 2014 Mar;51(3):215–25. doi: 10.1111/psyp.12172.

Abstract

The current study investigated the influence of social exclusion, created through the Cyberball paradigm, on cognitive control using neural and behavioral measures of action monitoring. Healthy young adults performed a modified flanker task while their post-error behavior (accuracy, RT) and error-related negativity (ERN) were assessed. Results indicated that excluded participants showed decreased ERN and post-error response accuracy compared to included participants following their social interactions. These findings suggest that a common neural framework may exist for cognitive control processes and that cognitive control allocated toward exclusion-related processing following exclusionary social interactions may disrupt the capability to support self-regulatory action monitoring.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Cerebral Cortex / physiology*
  • Cognition / physiology*
  • Electroencephalography
  • Evoked Potentials / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Psychomotor Performance / physiology*
  • Reaction Time / physiology
  • Social Control, Informal
  • Social Isolation*
  • Young Adult