The Developmental Research On The Behavior Choice And Cue-related FRN In The Probabilistic Learning Task

In our daily life, we use predictive cues or action outcomes to adjust our own behavior in order to get optimal results. For the past two decades, the neural mechanisms of such cognitive processing had been widely studied using an Event-related Potential(ERP)approach. Two ERP components were found to be associated with detecting mistake or accident: error negativity(Ne) and feedback-locked ERN(fERN). Recent studies pointed out FRN can also be elicited by probabilistic cues, the developmental process however,remains unexplored. To investigate the developmental traces of neural changes underlying processing predictive cues as well as the related behavioral changes, the current study recorded EEG & behavioral responses when young children(5-7 years), older children(7-9 years), adolescents(9 – 14 years) and adults while they performed a probabilistic learning task designed for participants across different ages. This task asked participants to guess which one out of four possible locations that a honest bean(great chance hiding in cued location) or a tricky bean(little chance hiding in cued location) were hiding. ERP analysis were time-locked to the onset of cueing stimuli and the behavioral analysis concerned human use feedback to learn the meaning of the high and low probability and guide the behavior choice.The results showed that behaviorally:(1) For the three younger groups, participants preferred the cued location no matter it is a high or low probabilistic condition. While the bias for selecting the cued location in the high probabilistic condition remains high from the beginning to the end for all age group,the age difference lays in the low probabilistic condition.(2) For the 5-7 years group, although children selecting the cued location significantly less in the low probabilistic condition than in the high probabilistic condition,there is no significant decrease of selecting the cued location in the low probabilistic condition. On the other hand, children(age from 7 to 9 in the current study)/adolescents(age from 9 to 14) started to show an adult-like pattern, which is a significant decrease ofselecting the cued location in the low probabilistic condition. Indicating feedback-based probabilistic learning develops well into later childhood and adolescents. We suggest that this might be because a dual-tracking system of two independent agents(high/low probabilistic)comes into place at around this age.(3) In general, the reaction times of all groups decreased with learning and age.As for the FRN elicited by cues, the results showed:(1) For different age groups, predictive cues elicited FRN with reduced amplitude as a function of age. This is consistent with previous research.(2) A more negative going FRN associated with negative cues compared with positive cues were shown for 5 to 7 years old participants, this is inconsistent with previous research which reported no ERP differences for children younger than 8 years of age.(3) Latency of FRN was delayed for later trial compare to earlier trials.The results suggests that children might have been sensitive to the high/low probabilistic cues as early as 5-7 years of age.