Abstract
The sense of agency (SoA) refers to the phenomenal experience of initiating and controlling an action, whereas the sense of ownership (SoO) describes the feeling of myness an agent experiences towards his or her own body parts. SoA has been investigated with intentional binding paradigms, and the sense of ownership (SoO) with the rubber-hand illusion (RHI). We investigated the relationship between SoA and SoO by incorporating intentional binding into the RHI. Explicit and implicit measures of agency (SoA-questionnaire, intentional binding) and ownership (SoO-questionnaire, proprioceptive drift) were used. Artificial hand position (congruent/incongruent) and mode of agent (self-agent/other-agent) were systematically varied. Reported SoO varied mainly with position (higher in congruent conditions), but also with agent (higher in self-agent conditions). Reported SoA was modulated by agent (higher in self-agent conditions), and moderately by position (higher in congruent conditions). Implicit and explicit agency measures were not significantly correlated. Finally, intentional binding tended to be stronger in self-generated than observed voluntary actions. Results provide further evidence for a partial double dissociation between SoA and SoO, empirically distinct agency levels, and moderate intentional binding differences between self-generated and observed voluntary actions.
Highlights
We usually take it for granted that our bodies are spatially extended in the world and that we are agents, acting upon the world
The sense of agency (SoA) refers to the phenomenal experience of initiating and controlling an action in order to bring about a change in the world [1,2]: for instance voluntarily lifting one’s arm in order to pick up a glass [3]
The SoA can be distinguished from the sense of ownership (SoO), which describes the feeling of myness or ownership an agent experiences towards his or her own body parts [4]
Summary
We usually take it for granted that our bodies are spatially extended in the world and that we are agents, acting upon the world. The sense of agency (SoA) refers to the phenomenal experience of initiating and controlling an action in order to bring about a change in the world [1,2]: for instance voluntarily lifting one’s arm (the motor aspect of an action) in order to pick up a glass (the intentional aspect of an action) [3]. The SoA can be distinguished from the sense of ownership (SoO), which describes the feeling of myness or ownership an agent experiences towards his or her own body parts [4]. For voluntary actions (e.g. an agent voluntarily lifts his or her arm) the SoA and SoO naturally coincide, but both experiences can be made in isolation. If someone else lifts an agent’s arm, the agent still experiences a SoO for the arm but not a SoA. A better understanding of how these experiences relate to each other seems important in basic research and may govern progress in different fields of neurorehabilitation
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