A developmental study of the feedback-related negativity from 10-17 years: age and sex effects for reward versus non-reward.

We employed event-related potentials to examine the feedback-related negativity (FRN), during a non-learning reward versus non-reward task. We compared 10-12-year-old, 13-14-year-old, and 15-17-year-old youth (n = 91). Age effects included a larger FRN for younger age groups, regardless of feedback type, and a decrease in peak latency for feedback, across age groups as a linear trend. Males showed larger responses irrespective of feedback type and longer latency for rewarded feedback. Source modeling revealed reward/non-reward differences in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and orbitofrontal cortex, most strongly in the subgenual ACC. Males showed more subgenual ACC activity for feedback overall.