# Investigating the error-related negativity and the balance N1 in children with anxiety disorders

> **NIH NIH F32** · FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $78,892

## Abstract

Project Summary
The error-related negativity (ERN) is a biomarker of error processing that can predict future onset and worse
outcomes of anxiety disorders in young children and is therefore a potential target to offset the development of
anxiety disorders. Therapeutic interventions can reduce the ERN in a single session, but a number of factors
make the ERN difficult to measure, such as requiring participants to spontaneously make mistakes on a small
fraction of hundreds of trials in simple computer games that are far removed from daily life. Further, the ERN is
quite sensitive to interpretation of the task instructions. The balance N1 is a comparable biomarker of error
processing that can be evoked by a sudden disturbance to standing balance. Unlike the ERN, the errors that
evoke the balance N1 are encountered in daily life, are under full experimental control, and evoke an
involuntary behavioral reaction that requires no prior instruction, eliminating many of the problems with
measuring the ERN. Further, the balance N1 is substantially larger in amplitude than the ERN and can be
robustly observed in single trials. Preliminary data demonstrate that the balance N1 and ERN amplitudes are
correlated within younger and older adult populations, suggesting the balance N1 may provide a robust
measurement of the same underlying neural system. In the proposed project, the balance N1 and ERN will be
measured in 128 children (ages 9-12, N=64 with anxiety disorders and N=64 without). While replicating prior
findings that the ERN is enhanced in clinically anxious children, this project will be the first to test whether the
balance N1 is similarly enhanced in anxious children (Aim 1). Then, this project will test whether the balance
N1 and ERN amplitudes are correlated within and across both groups of children, and assess whether they
account for unique or overlapping variance in anxiety status (Aim 2). The anxious children will then be
randomized into a single-session computer-based intervention targeting hyperactive error monitoring or a
control condition focused on healthy lifestyle choices. Our goal is to demonstrate that an intervention targeting
hyperactive error monitoring can reduce the ERN—and test whether this effect transfers to a similar reduction
of the balance N1 to test for shared underlying mechanisms (Aim 3). The proposed study may yield a
biomarker of anxiety that is more robust and easier to measure than the ERN. Transfer of the intervention
effect to the balance N1 would provide insight into prior work demonstrating that balance training can alleviate
anxiety in young children, and well-documented benefits of psychotherapy to balance disorders. Collectively,
these data may facilitate the development of multidisciplinary interventions for anxiety in children that target
activity of the brain’s error monitoring system. This project will provide training in the use of event-related
potential based biomarkers to study developmental psychopath...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10892889
- **Project number:** 5F32MH129076-03
- **Recipient organization:** FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Aiden Michael Payne
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $78,892
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-08-10 → 2025-08-09

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10892889

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10892889, Investigating the error-related negativity and the balance N1 in children with anxiety disorders (5F32MH129076-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10892889. Licensed CC0.

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