What Is Error-Related Negativity?
Error-related negativity (ERN) is a brain wave component detected by EEG — a negative voltage deflection time-locked to an incorrect response, generated by the anterior cingulate cortex within 50–100ms of the error. It reflects the brain’s conflict-monitoring and error-detection system and has been investigated as a potential neural correlate of deception.
Relevance to Deception
Lying may involve a form of internal “error” — the deceptive response conflicts with the truth the person knows. Research has explored whether the ERN shows different patterns during deliberate deception versus honest responding. Findings suggest deception engages conflict-monitoring processes similar to those generating the ERN during genuine errors, supporting the conflict theory of polygraph detection and the dual process theory which emphasises the suppression of automatic truth responses.
Research Status
The ERN remains a research tool rather than an operational method. It requires specialised laboratory equipment and controlled stimulus presentations impractical in field testing. Like other ERP-based approaches, it demonstrates that brain conflict-monitoring processes are activated during deception but hasn’t been developed into a validated diagnostic technique.
Related Concepts
Part of the broader family of event-related potentials (ERPs) and evoked cortical potentials. The P300 is the most widely studied ERP in deception detection.