The fronto-central N2 has also been implicated in conflict detection associated with performance monitoring. This potential, which peaks between 250 and 350 ms after the onset of an imperative stimulus and before a response is made, may reflect the detection of conflict involved in stimulus evaluation or target detection because it occurs at such an early stage in processing (Zhang et al. 1999); however, the functional role of the N2 in conflict detection and performance monitoring is still uncertain due to inconsistent findings (van Veen et al. 2001; Donkers and van Boxtel 2004; Bartholow et al. 2005). We found no differences in the fronto-central N2 between conditions or between groups suggesting that this potential, at least when elicited by our task, was not related to compensatory mechanisms triggered by response monitoring.
