Dynamic scalp topography reveals neural signs just before performance errors

Performance errors may cause serious consequences. It has been reported that ongoing activity of the frontal control regions across trials associates with the occurrence of performance errors. However, neural mechanisms that cause performance errors remain largely unknown. In this study, we hypothesized that some neural functions required for correct outcomes are lacking just before performance errors, and to determine this lack of neural function we applied a spatiotemporal analysis to high-density electroencephalogram signals recorded during a visual discrimination task, a d2 test of attention. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a difference in the temporal development of scalp ERP between trials with error, and correct outcomes as seen by topography during the d2 test of attention. We observed differences in the signal potential in the frontal region and then the occipital region between reaction times matched with correct and error outcomes. Our observations suggest that lapses of top-down signals from frontal control regions cause performance errors just after the lapses.