A meta-analytic review of the event-related potentials (ERN and N2) in childhood and adolescence: Providing a developmental perspective on the conflict monitoring theory

Effortful control (EC) is characterized by the ability to effectively inhibit and execute behaviors that are adaptively attuned to a specific context. Two event-related potentials (ERPs) known as the error-related negativity (ERN) and N2 are thought to measure EC, but the nature and function of these neural markers are not well understood in children. The present study provides the first comprehensive meta-analytic review of mean-level amplitude differences in the ERN and N2 from childhood to adolescence to quantify developmental changes in their magnitudes. I propose a developmental perspective on the conflict monitoring theory that facilitates evaluation of the claim that the ERN and N2 are measures of EC. As children's ability to correct their errors improves with age, increased post-response processing generated by the larger discrepancy between error and correct trials is expected to be characterized by increases in the ERN. As children's ability to ignore distracting information improves with age, decreased processing of irrelevant information is expected to be characterized by decreases in the N2. Meta-analysis of ERN studies (k = 26; N = 1, 519) and N2 studies (k = 19; N = 1, 095) indicated a 0.02 µV increase in ERN amplitude per month and 0.02 µV reduction per month in N2 amplitude across childhood and adolescence. These results are consistent with the hypotheses based on the proposed developmental account of the conflict monitoring theory. Findings suggest that there may be dissociable age effects of the ERN and N2 that are related to the development of EC.