Honors Program

Midway Honors, Honors in Psychology

Date of Award

12-2019

Thesis Professor(s)

Eric W. Sellers

Thesis Professor Department

Psychology

Thesis Reader(s)

Alyson J. Chroust

Abstract

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. Based on these findings, we investigated the relationships between these three disorders and their effects on the amplitude of the ERN. We recruited thirty-one 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 was collected using a 32-channel EEG cap. ERN amplitude for error responses was significantly higher than ERN amplitude for correct responses. In contrast with previous literature, no significant influence on the ERN was observed due to anxiety, depression, or ADHD. Additional research on the topic with larger sample size and different diagnostic procedures may be necessary to further investigate the phenomenon.

Publisher

East Tennessee State University

Document Type

Honors Thesis - Withheld

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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