Age-related differences in the error-related negativity and error positivity in children and adolescents are moderated by sample and methodological characteristics: A meta-analysis

By Rune Boen, Daniel S. Quintana, Cecile D. Ladouceur, and Christian K. Tamnes

Mistakes happen—often more than once. A team of researchers from NORMENT and PROMENTA sought to understand how your brain processes mistakes and whether these mechanisms change during development. This question is particularly relevant to mental health as some research suggests individuals with mental disorders process mistakes in an atypical manner.

Rather than re-inventing the wheel, the research team performed a meta-analysis, essentially canvassing all existing literature on two types of electrical brain activity that corresponds to mistake processing in children and adolescents without a diagnosed mental disorder. Not only did they find that the developmental trajectory of these two types of electrical brain activity differs (one goes up with age the other is constant across development), but they also found that this age-effect increased or decreased depending on the methods used to measure them. These results point to a key scientific take home message, how you measure something is just as important as what you are measuring. Read more about electrical brain activity in mistake processing here.  

Published May 31, 2022 5:18 PM - Last modified May 31, 2022 5:18 PM