Waiting to perceive: reward or punishment?

Neurobiological accounts of the dopaminergic reward system and psychophysiological explanations of the error-related negativity (ERN) both emphasize the comparison of expected versus actual outcome for voluntary actions. The stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) constitutes a valuable index of that expectation, in that it has high temporal resolution and its anatomical, cognitive and affective correlates have been reasonably well characterized. This review links established findings regarding the SPN to current research on the dorsal and ventral attention systems, somatic marker hypothesis, ERN, the reward system and relevant neurological and psychiatric findings. Special emphasis is given to the pre-feedback SPN and its origin within anterior insular cortex.