Whenever humans recognize a mistake, a mysterious wave of electricity passes through the brain. Researchers think the signal could explain addiction, error correction and even the sixth sense.

Errors, Ullsperger is convinced, are in fact one of the most valuable sources of knowledge. “A man’s errors are his portals of discovery,” Irish writer James Joyce once said, anticipating a conclusion modern neuroscience has now confirmed…

Ullsperger, like a dozen other research teams around the world, is currently studying how the brain tracks down and processes its own errors. “Our brain has the fascinating ability to detect errors and, if they have already occurred, to learn from the experience,” he explains…

In the early 1990s, Michael Falkenstein, a neurophysiologist from the western German city of Dortmund, observed for the first time how voltage declines by at least 10 millivolts in a specific group of nerve cells, and that this occurs only 100 milliseconds after a person has made an error — about the time it takes for your cursor to respond to a click of the mouse.

Falkenstein’s discovery marked the beginning of a period of systematic study of the brain’s fine-tuned error detector. It paved the way for fascinating new theories on questions such as why compulsive disorders occur or why some people hesitate while others make confident decisions. It also shines a new light on the development of addiction.

Suddenly it becomes clear why a person can often avoid making a certain mistake based purely on gut feeling. “The experiences of the error system provide precisely that subconscious knowledge on which intuition is based,” explains Ullsperger…

The error system acts in two ways. First, it intervenes in a corrective way when a person has committed an error. But it also has a warning capability. When it recognizes that an action may not lead to the desired outcome, this recognition is expressed in a vaguely uneasy feeling…

The Cologne-based neurologist can also demonstrate that subjects who have made a mistake in the Flanker test take more time for their ensuing responses. “People change their decision-making strategy,” he says. “They begin to learn from their errors.”

But what does the drop in dopamine production cause? What triggers the entire chain of signals? Ullsperger’s explanation is that whenever the brain decides to take a specific action, it simultaneously develops an idea of the expected consequences. If the desired result occurs, the brain rewards itself with the feel-good hormone dopamine. But if something unexpected happens, the reward is withheld — a form of self-inflicted punishment…

Source: Spiegel Online, Germany
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,507176,00.html