The influence of peer observation on error-related negativity and the association with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescents.

Performance monitoring or error monitoring is a crucial aspect of development, as it enables individuals to learn from mistakes and adjust their behavior accordingly. This process is thought to underlie observational learning, in which feedback from one’s own or others’ actions informs future behavior (Yu & Zhou, 2006). The event-related potential (ERP) component that is often studied in relation to error monitoring is the error-related negativity (ERN) (Falkenstein et al., 1991; Gehring et al., 1993). The ERN is a negative peak observed at frontocentral sites approximately 25-75 ms after the occurrence of an error (Olvet & Hajcak, 2008). The ERN has shown to develop across adolescence, an increase in amplitude has been observed from adolescence into young adulthood (Boen et al., 2022; Lo, 2018). In addition to developmental changes, the ERN is sensitive to social context. ERN amplitudes are enhanced when individuals believe their performance is being evaluated by another participant (Hajcak et al., 2005; Voegler et al., 2018) or when participants make mistakes that harm others (de Bruijn et al., 2020), suggesting heightened error monitoring in socially evaluative situations. The ERN has also been linked to psychopathology (Olvet & Hajcak, 2008). Specifically, increased ERN amplitude have been observed in individuals with internalizing symptoms, particularly anxiety (Moser et al., 2013). Importantly, this enhancement seems to be especially pronounced under social observation, as individuals with internalizing symptoms (i.e. anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)) show larger ERNs when being observed compared to when performing tasks alone (Buzzell et al., 2017; Jansen & de Bruijn, 2020). In contrast, externalizing symptoms have been associated with a blunted ERN (Moser et al., 2013; Pasion & Barbosa, 2019). Despite the growing interest in influence of social observation on the ERN in internalizing psychopathology, less is known about how social observation influences the ERN in individuals with externalizing symptoms. Moreover, ERN findings become less consistent in the presence of comorbid psychopathology. Addressing this issue, Suor et al. (2021) studied the ERN in youth with and without anxiety disorders and the effects of comorbid externalizing problems. They found enhanced ERN amplitudes were present only in anxious individuals without comorbid externalizing symptoms. Anxious individuals with comorbid externalizing problems showed similar reduced error monitoring as those with primary externalizing pathology (Suor et al., 2021). We will continue this line of research by studying associations between the ERN and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms in a large community sample. In this study, we examine how age, social observation, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms interact to influence the ERN in a large community sample of adolescents aged 10 to 20 years. This approach allows us to clarify the developmental dynamics of the ERN, its sensitivity to social context, and its associations with psychopathological symptoms. We will study social observation by using non-social and social version of a Go/No-Go paradigm. Participants will first complete the task individually in separate rooms, after which pairs of participants will perform the task while observing each other.