Abstract

We examined how the effects of induced short-term affect on error processing depend on neuroticism. Two groups of neuroticism (high/low) were examined for ERN (error related negativity) and Pe (error positivity) related to error response during the Eriksen flanker task. Short-term affects were induced by presenting one of the emotional (positive/neutral/negative) IAPS pictures immediately before the flanker stimulus was presented in each trial of Eriksen flanker task. Behavioral data showed that error responses were faster than correct responses in two groups, and no difference was observed between high neuroticism group and low neuroticism group. The peak amplitude of ERN was larger (more negative) than CRN (correct response negativity). In particular, the effect of induced affect on ERN amplitude was different according to the level of neuroticism. For the high neuroticism group, the induced negative affect produced a larger amplitude than the neutral affect, but no effect of the induced affect was observed in the low neuroticism group. In addition, the effects of positive affect were not observed in both groups. On the other hand, the peak amplitude and latency of Pe was larger (more positive) and longer than those of Pc (correct positivity), and no effect associated with neuroticism and induced affect was observed. In summary, the effect of induced affect on the early error processing was dependent on the level of neuroticism. The high neuroticism group, unlike the low neuroticism group, showed a larger ERN amplitude when negative affect was induced compared to the neutral affect. These results suggest that high neuroticism group was very sensitive to the induced short-term negative affect which influenced error monitoring. On the other hand, in the later stages of error processing, the induced affect or neuroticism did not have an effect on the error awareness.