Conflict and error processing in anterior cingulate cortex

Yeung, N.
Department of Psychology, Princeton University
E-mail: nyeung@princeton.edu

Anterior cingulate cortex is thought to play a critical role in performance monitoring. In particular, it has been proposed that regions within anterior cingulate are involved in monitoring for response conflict, the simultaneous activation of incompatible responses. This theory, developed in order to account for ACC activity observed in neuroimaging studies, has recently been extended to account for two ERP components, the N2 and the error-related negativity (Ne/ERN). I will discuss ERP evidence consistent with the hypothesis that the N2 and Ne/ERN reflect conflict monitoring in anterior cingulate cortex, and consider the implications of these findings for theories of conflict and error processing.