Sensorimotor coordination generates extended agency

Abstract

When we synchronize finger tapping with a visual metronome, we experience a strikingly robust phenomenon of extended agency known as Spizzo’s effect. This effect is the compelling sense that we are controlling the metronome. The effect arises even though the agent knows that the metronome operates autonomously. We propose that the extended agency here established over metronome pulses results from sensorimotor coordination. To test this hypothesis, we operationalize sensorimotor coordination in terms of the correlation structures in series of asynchronies or reaction times from two finger-tapping tasks. Analyses reveal that, whereas correlation structures vary across individuals and show a systematic drift towards nonstationarity with increasing metronome frequency conditions, the presence of correlation structure is co-extensive with Spizzo’s effect. We interpret this result as supporting the view that extended agency relies on sensorimotor coordination. Sensorimotor coordination, we suggest, may induce the effect by integrating the perception of visual pulses and the agency over tapping into a synesthetic experience.