Investigating the EEG Error-Related Negativity in College Students with ADHD, Anxiety, and Depression

• Main Authors: Canini, Mariacristina, Jones, Marissa R, Sawyer, Ben, Ashworth, Ethan, Sellers, Eric W
• Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2019
• Subjects: Error-related Negativity; Anxiety; Depression; ADHD; Psychology
• Online Access: https://dc.etsu.edu/asrf/2019/schedule/145

Error-related Negativity (ERN) is an event-related potential elicited by the commission of errors. It appears as a negative deflection peaking between 50ms and 100ms after an erroneous response. Previous literature demonstrated that individuals who suffer from either anxiety or depression display a higher ERN amplitude compared to a control group. It has also been shown that people with ADHD display a lower ERN amplitude, suggesting that traits of this disorder, such as impulsivity, impair sensitivity to errors. Based on these findings, we investigated which disorder has more weight on the variance in amplitude of the ERN. We recruited thirty-eight students at East Tennessee State University and gathered data on their level of anxiety, depression, and ADHD through completion of three surveys: the Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, and the ADHD self-report scale. Subsequently, participants were asked to perform a modified Flanker task while their EEG neural activity was collected through a 32-channel EEG cap. ERN amplitude for error responses was significantly higher than ERN amplitude for correct responses. In addition, error responses produced a large P300 component of the event-related potential.