When goals are missed: Dealing with self-generated and externally induced failure Markus Ullsperger, a,b, ⁎ Hiroshi Nittono, c and D. Yves von Cramon a,b a Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany b Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research, Cologne, Germany c Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, Japan Received 20 December 2006; revised 22 January 2007; accepted 23 January 2007 Available online 12 February 2007 The posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) has been consistently implicated in performance monitoring. It is assumed to signal the need for adjustments whenever the outcome of an action is worse than intended. Up to now, monitoring of self-generated errors has been in the focus of research. In everyday life, however, also external reasons such as machine malfunction may cause that an action goal is missed, such that compensatory actions are needed. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we tested whether the pMFC is engaged not only by self-generated errors but also by failure to achieve the goal resulting from external reasons and whether performance monitoring activity differs between the two conditions. In a modified flanker task yielding sufficient numbers of self-generated errors technical malfunc- tions were simulated on a subset of correct trials. Malfunctions and errors led to equal fMRI signal increases in the pMFC. The activity time course differed, however; in malfunctions the maximum occurred later than in errors. Moreover, pMFC activity was stronger with increasing time needed for actions compensating the failure to achieve the action goal in the first place. The results suggest that its activity increases when selection of the compensatory action turns out to be more ambiguous and demanding. Thus, no matter of whether adjustments are needed as a result of a self-generated error or external factors, the pMFC plays a prominent role in initiating compensatory actions and in the selection of the appropriate compensation. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Performance monitoring; Error/feedback processing; Cognitive control; fMRI; Anterior cingulate cortex; Posterior medial frontal cortex Pursuing goals requires to monitor whether executed actions result in the intended effects. Whenever action effects deviate from the goals, appropriate adjustments and compensatory actions become necessary. So far, performance monitoring research has focused on self-generated errors. 1 However, in everyday life also external factors, such as technical malfunction, may interfere with goal achievement. When pressing the button of a TV remote control has no effect, actions aiming at compensating the failure are implemented immediately: pressing again, pressing harder, finally using the buttons directly on the TV set. In addition to monitoring for deviations in action outcomes it is necessary to analyze their cause and to select appropriate compensatory actions. While on malfunctions repeating the same action may be successful, repeating an error would certainly not. Cognitive neuroscience provides strong evidence implicating the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) in signaling the need for adjustments, whenever the action goal was not achieved or the likelihood of failure is high (Brown and Braver, 2005; Ridder- inkhof et al., 2004). The magnitude of pMFC activity, specifically in the rostral cingulate zone (RCZ), has been shown to predict the strength of subsequent adjustments (Debener et al., 2005; Kerns et al., 2004). The reinforcement learning theory of performance monitoring suggests that the RCZ activity is modulated by a dopaminergic signal indicating whether an action outcome is worse or better than expected, whatever the primary cause of the deviation from the prediction is (Holroyd and Coles, 2002). In other words, a general performance monitoring system triggering compensatory actions and adjustments should be sensitive to any kind of failure, irrespective of whether it was self-generated or not. An important question is how appropriate compensatory actions are selected depending on the source of failure. Furthermore, pMFC activity has been shown to be modulated by subjective error significance and has been related to the affective response associated with errors (Luu and Pederson, 2004). Differential attribution of the failure may therefore be hypothesized to modulate pMFC activity. www.elsevier.com/locate/ynimg NeuroImage 35 (2007) 1356 – 1364 ⁎ Corresponding author. Max-Planck-Institute for Neurological Research with Klaus-Joachim-Zülch Laboratories of the Max-Planck-Society and the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne, Gleueler Str. 50, D-50931 Cologne, Germany. Fax: +49 221 4726 298. E-mail address: markus.ullsperger@nf.mpg.de (M. Ullsperger). Available online on ScienceDirect (www.sciencedirect.com). 1 The term self-generated errors refers to poor action outcomes resulting from a failure that can be attributed to the acting person. It is not intended to address question whether the action selection was initiated endogenously or exogenously. 1053-8119/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.01.026