Error processing in patients with asthma during dyspnea

<bold>Background:</bold> Dyspnea is a main symptom in asthma patients (AP). It represents a bodily error signal, i.e. a dissonance between heightened respiratory demand and insufficient ventilatory response. This study investigated error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe), electroencephalogram (EEG) potentials reflecting early error detection and awareness in AP in a forced choice reaction task during inspiratory resistive-loaded breathing. We expected 1) overall decreased ERN and Pe amplitudes during dyspnea vs. baseline and 2) higher amplitudes in AP compared to healthy controls (HC) during dyspnea, potentially linked to greater dyspnea experiences. <bold>Methods:</bold> Using EEG, we studied 13 AP (Age=51±20) and 9 HC (Age=36±14) performing a Flanker task during 2 loaded and 2 unloaded breathing blocks (~1.5-min/block). ERN was the mean amplitude of early negative EEG deflection (≤100ms post error) over fronto-central scalp areas; Pe was the mean amplitude of positive deflection (150-400ms post error) at centroparietal sites. <bold>Results:</bold> Linear mixed models revealed no significant difference between both conditions in ERN (F(1,16)=1.07, p=.317) or in Pe (F(1,16)=.33, p=.577). No significant AP-HC differences were found during loaded breathing in ERN (F(1,16)=.77, p=.392) or Pe amplitudes (F(1,16)=.16, p=.695). During loaded breathing, AP and HC did not differ in dyspnea intensity, unpleasantness, and fear self-reports. ERN and Pe did not correlate with self-reports. <bold>Conclusion:</bold> Error detection and awareness did not differ between both conditions or between groups during induced dyspnea. The results suggest that dyspnea may not directly relate to neural mechanisms of error processing in general or in AP during forced choice reaction tasks.