Visual false pattern perception can increase in response to a lack of control. However, prior studies have manipulated control over relatively long timescales by altering participants' beliefs. We investigated whether short-timescale sensorimotor discrepancies, which are known to disrupt sense of agency, also lead to an increase in false perceptions. Participants were instructed either to voluntarily press a key, which triggered immediate or delayed visual feedback (i.e., white noise images with or without an embedded object), or to passively observe the feedback. We also explored metacognition in visual detection using post-trial confidence ratings. Sense of agency over visual feedback was successfully manipulated via voluntary keypress and feedback delay. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found no evidence that reduced sense of agency was associated with increased visual false perception. However, when participants experienced sense of agency over the feedback, both correct detection (i.e., hit rates) and metacognitive sensitivity were enhanced. This improvement in detection appeared to reflect a shift in response bias rather than a change in perceptual sensitivity. We found no effect of feedback delay on detection or metacognitive sensitivity. These results suggest that voluntary action, rather than sense of agency per se arising from feedback congruence, plays a greater role in shaping perception of action-related feedback.

What is voluntary action in International Relations (IR)? Literatures on bargaining, empire, foreign policy, grand strategy, hierarchy, hegemony, international law, international order, legitimacy, responsibility, status, and strategy depend on the answer, yet IR has no definition of it. We argue that voluntary action is an expression of genuine will. Yet, because of theoretical commitments, there remains deep disagreement about which actors are capable of genuine will, what process produces it, and what internal and external conditions interfere with it. We lay out where and why disagreements occur and discuss ways of advancing disputes over voluntarism in world politics.

As Korean society undergoes rapid multiculturalization, hate speech and discourses of reverse discrimination against immigrants are proliferating in the form of sophisticated logic. However, existing multicultural education has often limited itself to essentializing culture or emphasizing depoliticized tolerance by diagnosing the causes of discrimination as mere individual cognitive deficits or ignorance. Consequently, this study reconstructs multicultural education as a practical arena for fostering critical citizenship by adopting the perspective of New rhetoric, which seeks to resolve hatred and conflict within the realms of language and argumentation. The instructional model designed in this study reinterprets James A. Banks's five dimensions of multicultural education through key mechanisms of New rhetoric: ‘terministic screens’, ‘universal audience’, ‘identification and presence’, and ‘adherence’ and structures them into a four-stage teaching-learning process. First, the stage of ‘discovering and reflecting on prejudice in language’ deconstructs symbolic violence by analyzing how unconsciously used terms deflect reality. Second, the stage of ‘empathizing and connecting with specific others’ facilitates horizontal solidarity by discovering a common substance with others through specific narratives. Third, the stage of ‘fair argumentation and validity verification’ examines whether one’s arguments can secure the agreement of the universal audience beyond particular interests. Fourth, the stage of ‘eliciting adherence leading to action’ is a process where students, first, secure the adherence of minds through mutual argumentation, next, directly establish community norms, and, finally, link this to voluntary action. Through this model, learners are expected to cultivate civic competence as active ‘rhetors’ who can discern the logical structures of hatred and generate new social consensus through rational argumentation in conflict situations.

Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Continuous electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring is essential for prevention and treatment, but conventional approaches based on the need for some voluntary action often limit comfort and adherence in long-term use. This study investigates the feasibility of acquiring ECG signals from a toilet seat interface embedding dry electrodes in the posterior thighs. A total of 30 hospitalised patients with diverse cardiovascular conditions-including arrhythmias, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, structural abnormalities, and aneurysms-were enrolled. Thigh-acquired ECGs were recorded simultaneously with conventional limb-lead signals and analysed for morphology, heart rate variability (HRV), and disease-related clustering. Thigh-based ECGs demonstrated clear P-QRS-T complexes with preserved morphology, allowing reliable extraction of mean templates and HRV metrics. The comparison between pathological and normal groups showed that post-surgical aortic repair patients had ECG profiles closest to the normal cluster; in contrast, aortic stenosis (AS) appeared most distant. HRV analysis revealed disease-specific autonomic patterns: patients with tricuspid or mitral involvement exhibited higher variability (SDNN up to 140 ms), whereas those with aortic valve disease presented markedly reduced parasympathetic indices (RMSSD and pNN50). Principal component analysis of multi-feature ECG data identified overlapping groups of Acute Coronary Syndrome, Unstable Angina and Ascending Aortic Aneurysm. At the same time, hierarchical clustering confirmed the distinct separation of conditions with severe hemodynamic disruption, such as PS and AS. These findings support the feasibility of unobtrusive thigh-based ECG monitoring via a toilet-seat interface, enabling reliable signal acquisition, HRV analysis, and preliminary patient stratification. This approach may lay the groundwork for future home-based cardiovascular screening and telemedicine applications.

The ISTAT survey "Wellbeing and Safety of People" analysed subjective well-being and perceived safety in Italy. It involves a sample of about 25,000 individuals aged 16–75, with 21,000 Italians interviewed via CATI (telephone) and 4,500 foreigners via CAPI (face-to-face). A key innovation was the contact strategy for CATI interviews: participants received an informative letter and a reminder, encouraging them voluntarily provide a phone number through a toll-free number or an ISTAT webpage (via tax code or QR code). Another methodological novelty was the formation of interview quartets, prioritizing individuals who had proactively shared their contact details, thereby reinforcing the link between voluntary action and participation. This paper has the goals to assess the impact of the communication strategy and reminders on response rates and participation patterns by age and geographical area. The approach offers useful insights to improve citizen engagement in future surveys and could serve as a replicable model to reduce territorial inequalities in participation.

Abstract There are long-standing concerns about unevenness in the distribution of voluntary organizations across local areas, reemphasized by the sector’s role in responding to the pandemic. Using longitudinal data on a subset of voluntary organizations across six census periods (1971–2021), we estimate growth trajectories in the number of charities per capita for local authorities across England and Wales. We assess whether the shape of these trajectories is associated with an area’s demographic and geographic characteristics, including its level of material deprivation, ethnic composition, and regional location. We reveal sizeable and enduring differences between local authorities over time, driven by a homogenous growth trajectory for all areas. Our findings suggest that national efforts are needed to address inequalities in the distribution of charitable organizations, as well as reverse recent declines in the per capita density of these organizations.

Peripersonal space (PPS)-the immediate space surrounding the body-modulates perception and motor control. However, its impact on how voluntary actions are initiated and subjectively experienced remains underexplored. Similarly, how directing attention to different phases of an action, such as intention formation versus execution, and anticipating outcomes of an action, modulates the neural readiness for movement, has yet to be fully examined. This study investigates whether spatial proximity, attentional focus, and anticipated action outcomes influence action preparation and action awareness, using a virtual reality adaptation of the Libet clock paradigm during EEG recordings. Neural results reveal that attentional focus and anticipated action outcomes modulate different phases of motor preparation, as indexed by the readiness potential (RP)-a gradual buildup of neural activity preceding voluntary movement. Focusing on decision timing (without subsequent action outcomes) enhances early RP amplitude and decreases the late RP slope, suggesting increased preparatory neural engagement during intention formation. In contrast, focusing on action execution leads to a steeper late RP slope, indicating later and faster motor activity buildup when attention is directed toward movement onset. Anticipating action outcomes increased late RP slope, which was accompanied by the temporal binding effect: when a tone followed the action, both decision and action estimates shifted toward it. Spatial proximity also modulates early RP slope, with a steeper buildup in near versus far space, suggesting facilitated motor preparation within PPS. It further enhances the late RP amplitude when participants focused on their intention to act. Behavioral results show that actions are perceived as occurring earlier when the clock is displayed near compared to far, indicating that PPS influences the temporal perception of action timing. Overall, these findings highlight the dynamic interplay among external spatial context and internal cognitive processes in shaping motor preparation and action awareness. Importantly, a temporal internal attentional focus on intention to act modulates early RP-traditionally considered an unconscious stage of neural readiness. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of how PPS and the locus of attention on specific action phases affect action preparation and awareness, with potential implications for future research on the sense of agency and voluntary action decision making.

Three propositions about conscious experience and their implications for theories of consciousness.

Prosocial behavior is a voluntary action that provides benefits to others, such as showing care, empathy, and respect for personal value and dignity. The ability to behave socially is very important to have in order to prepare oneself to be accepted in the social environment. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of storytelling in circle time on prosocial behavior in kindergarten children. The method used in this study is an experimental research method which uses one group pre-test post-test. Data collection was done through observation with checklist recording techniques. The data analysis used is descriptive analysis. The subjects in this study were TUNAS BANGSA kindergarten children aged 5-6 years. The results of this study are that the storytelling method at circle time is effective in increasing prosocial behavior in children.

This article examines how artificial intelligence (AI) challenges and transforms domestic and international criminal law. Traditional doctrines of liability, rooted in human intent and voluntary action, are destabilized by autonomous systems that can act independently of direct human control. The paper identifies thirteen emerging areas where AI creates new crimes or reshapes existing ones, including deepfakes, automated fraud, algorithmic discrimination, cyberattacks, and election manipulation. It also explores unresolved issues such as AI personhood, distributed liability, and accountability in health care, space, and warfare. The analysis underscores the urgent need for legal adaptation to ensure fairness, responsibility, and deterrence.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by motor impairment which consists of tremor and non-tremor symptoms. Cognitive function may overlap with specific aspects of voluntary movement and action initiation. This study aims to investigate associations between global cognition and the severity and longitudinal progression of tremor and non-tremor motor symptoms in PD. As part of the Oxford Quantification in Parkinsonism (OxQUIP) study, 84 participants with PD were tested over seven visits at three-month intervals. At each visit, participants completed standardized global cognitive (MoCA) and motor (MDS-UPDRS-III) assessments. Tremor and non-tremor motor subscores were derived from corresponding MDS-UPDRS-III items. Linear mixed-effects models were calculated to analyze the effect of global cognition at baseline on the progression of (i) overall motor impairment, (ii) non-tremor motor symptoms, and (iii) tremor symptoms. We did not find an association between MoCA scores and MDS-UPDRS-III severity, but there was a significant interaction between global cognition and the progression of motor impairment (p = 0.005). Lower MoCA scores were linked with steeper progression of non-tremor motor symptoms (p < 0.001), but not tremor symptoms (p = 0.380). Global cognition at baseline is associated with the progression, but not severity, of motor impairment in PD; this finding is specific to non-tremor and not tremor motor symptoms. While both motor subdomains are known to be linked with dysfunction of sub-cortical circuits, non-tremor symptoms may also be influenced by disrupted cognitive inputs. Our results highlight the potential value of incorporating cognitive tools to complement motor examination in PD assessment.

Abstract Erasmus did not set out a formal theory of shame, yet he developed a subtle and wide-ranging engagement with the emotion across his corpus, most prominently in the Adagia , his pedagogical texts, his letters, and his translation of Plutarch’s Περὶ δυσωπίας ( De vitiosa verecundia ). Situated within ancient and medieval debates on aidōs and pudor / verecundia , Erasmus adopts a conception of shame as a passion tied to fear of dishonor that may function as a quasi-virtue when regulated by conscience. Building on this inheritance, he participates in broader Renaissance discussions of emotion and character formation, most notably in the Adagia and his educational writings. In the former work, Erasmus catalogues and subtly reframes classical topoi on shame’s physiology, moral ambivalence, and relation to honor, fear, and necessity. In the educational writings, he recasts shame as a pedagogical instrument capable, ‘in its right measure’, of encouraging voluntary right action and cultivating decorum. Alongside this theoretical engagement, Erasmus also maps these distinctions onto his own self-understanding and self-presentation. His correspondence draws on the rhetoric of shame—largely understood as (over)bashfulness and persistent self-dissatisfaction—to fashion a persona of modesty and self-critique, with varied rhetorical and practical effects. More pointedly, Plutarch’s notion of δυσωπία , elaborated in his short essay Περὶ δυσωπίας and deliberately included in Erasmus’ Plutarch collection, furnishes Erasmus with both a technical vocabulary and a diagnostic lens for interpreting his own character and decisions. Read together, these texts shed light on Erasmus’ moral psychology of shame and on the role it plays in early modern humanist self-fashioning.

Bodily rhythms such as breathing and heartbeat influence perception and motor processes. Recent studies have indicated that breathing phases, particularly exhalation, synchronize with voluntary actions, potentially reflecting a general influence on motor intention. However, this effect might depend on the specific effector and movement direction. This study aimed to investigate (i) respiratory synchronization across different voluntary motor tasks, (ii) the interaction between stimulus-locked and action-locked respiratory coupling, and (iii) cardiac synchronization with voluntary actions. A total of 32 healthy participants performed two voluntary motor tasks: a modified Libet clock task and an elbow flexion-extension task. In the Libet clock task, the participants monitored a rotating dot on a clock face and either pressed a key at a self-chosen time (key-press condition) or released the key after holding it pressed (key-release condition). In the elbow flexion-extension task, the participants spontaneously pushed (elbow extension) or pulled (elbow flexion) a joystick. Across tasks, voluntary actions showed an overall tendency to occur during exhalation across multiple effectors (finger and elbow) and movement directions (extension and flexion). Furthermore, stimulus-locked respiratory phase was associated with subsequent action timing, suggesting that trial structure can shape respiration-action coupling. We found no robust evidence for systematic cardiac-phase modulation of voluntary action timing, although a weak condition-specific trend was observed. Collectively, these findings support respiration-action coupling across diverse actions and highlight a potential contribution of stimulus-locked respiratory dynamics to voluntary action timing.

Top consensus-based strategies for health plan decarbonization: a modified Delphi study.

To report the failure rates, revision rates, and time course of speech perception performance changes for recipients of the Advanced Bionics HiRes Ultra and Ultra 3D V1 internal devices at a large cochlear implant program. Retrospective case series. Tertiary referral center. Adults and children implanted with Advanced Bionics HiRes Ultra or Ultra 3D V1 internal devices. Device failure rates, revision surgery rates, and speech perception performance over time. As of February 2025, a total of 72 of the 105 devices monitored were identified at our institution as having device failure consistent with voluntary field corrective action (FCA). The device survival rate is 30.6% in 36 adult ears and 33.3% in 69 pediatric ears. Of those with subsequent revision surgery, routine speech perception testing showed declines in speech in quiet performance as early as ~12 months before revision for adult ears and ~6 months pre-revision for pediatric ears. Both patient groups experienced similar speech perception recovery as early as 3 months and stabilized by 9 months post-revision. The 7-year survival rate of initial V1 devices is around 30% to 33%, with the anticipation of an even lower survival rate over a longer period. Although speech perception recovers over time, it may take as long as 9 months post-revision for patients to return to pre-failure levels. We recommend rigorous monitoring using speech perception testing, both during V1 integrity monitoring and post-revision, to understand the impact of device failure in individual patients, particularly for children.

Air travel is expected to continue growing in the coming decades, increasing the pressure to reduce carbon emissions from aviation. Voluntary carbon offsetting is one of the few options currently available to air travelers to address these emissions. However, only a small share of passengers chooses to purchase offsets. While most existing studies rely on stated preferences and intentions, this paper examines revealed carbon offsetting behavior using anonymized individual-level data from 3.9 million air travelers enrolled in a major European airline frequent flyer program. In doing so, the study provides the first large-scale evidence on voluntary carbon offsetting based on real-world behavioral data from a frequent flyer context. Our analysis shows that five percent of air travelers offset at least one flight in 2023. Participation is highest among middle-aged male travelers with high frequent-flyer status, challenging several socio-demographic patterns that are commonly inferred from stated-preference research but are not reflected in revealed offsetting behavior. By documenting systematic gaps between stated intentions and revealed behavior, this study challenges established assumptions in sustainability and transport research and introduces complementary theoretical perspectives to explain voluntary climate action in high-emission consumption contexts.

IntroductionAgency confirmation via control feedback (e.g., an immediate sensory consequence of one’s action) has been shown to motivate action choice and reinforce motor responses. Recent work also demonstrated that it qualitatively improves motor performance. The present study tested the hypothesis that this improvement arises because control feedback selectively strengthens stimulus–response (S–R) associations, and further examined its reinforcing impact on motor responses and action choice to provide an integrated account of how agency confirmation shapes behavior and performance.MethodsThree experiments employed an acquisition-test paradigm. During acquisition, specific stimulus–response combinations triggered an immediate perceptual effect, while other combinations produced no effect (Experiments 1 and 3) or a delayed effect (Experiment 2). In the test phase, the perceptual effect depended solely on the response (Experiments 1 and 2) or was absent (Experiment 3). Experiment 3 also included a free-choice phase assessing the motivating impact of control feedback on voluntary action selection and explicit knowledge regarding the S–R pairings.ResultsControl feedback enhanced S–R learning, yielding faster and more accurate performance for previously reinforced pairings compared to delayed or no-effect conditions. Immediate response-contingent effect independently facilitated motor execution (Experiments 1 and 2), and reinforced S–R pairings biased action choice preference (Experiment 3) even without explicit awareness of the pairings.DiscussionAgency confirmation via control feedback exerts a triple and partially dissociable influence on behavior, enhancing S–R learning, reinforcing motor execution, and motivating voluntary action. The findings inform models of action control and motor skill learning.

Abstract The capacity for voluntary action is a distinctive feature of human minds. However, experimental studies of volition struggled to capture the defining features of human voluntariness. Here we developed a competitive game that incentivized participants to innovate their action choices to find the right time to avoid a collision with an opponent who predicted the timing of the participant’s action choice. One group of participants was explicitly instructed that the competitor would monitor the participant’s action choices, while a second group had no information about the competitor. Both groups showed increased behavioural stochasticity when adapting to a competitor who punished participants’ choice biases. However, the group that had no explicit information avoided the action that the competitor was likely to take. In contrast, the group that explicitly knew the competitor’s action-selection rules avoided the same action they took in preceding trials so that the competitor could not easily exploit the participant’s behavioural patterns. These findings suggest that people can voluntarily develop beliefs about how the other agent thinks the participant’s behaviour and can adapt voluntary action choices accordingly. However, developing this socialized aspect of volition requires instructed knowledge about the other agent—it does not arise spontaneously through trial-and-error alone.

Brain-computer interface (BCI) research has achieved remarkable technical progress but remains limited in scope, typically relying on motor and visual cortex signals in limited patient populations. We propose a paradigm shift in BCI design rooted in ideomotor theory, which conceptualizes voluntary action as driven by internally represented sensory outcomes. This underused framework offers a principled basis for next-generation BCIs that align closely with the brain's natural intentional and action-planning architecture. We suggest a more intuitive, generalizable, and scalable path by reorienting BCIs around the 'what for' of action-user goals and anticipated effects. This shift is timely and feasible, enabled by advances in neural recording and artificial intelligence-based decoding of sensory representations. It may help resolve challenges of usability and generalizability in BCI design.

Apathy is a common neuropsychiatric syndrome in neurodegenerative dementias, though its underlying mechanisms are not well understood. It is characterized, in part, by a reduction in self-initiated action (ie, voluntary actions instigated by internal or external stimuli). The sense of agency (SoA) refers to the feeling of control over one's actions and the outcomes of those actions. Experimentally, SoA can be measured using the intentional binding effect, where the perceptual attraction of a voluntary action to an immediate effect of that action is indicative of increased SoA. The current study aimed to investigate aberrant SoA as a potential mechanism contributing to apathy. Thirty-eight participants with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer disease, frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body disease or Parkinson disease (LBD/PD), and healthy controls were recruited for this study. We used the total score on the Apathy Evaluation Scale to index apathy severity across participants. Our results did not show an association between apathy and intentional binding. However, there were significant group-based differences. Compared to healthy controls, participants in the LBD/PD group demonstrated significantly more intentional binding driven by a pronounced perceptual attraction of their actions to the subsequent outcomes. These findings suggest altered sensorimotor and cognitive control processes that may be associated with the self-initiation deficits seen in individuals with neurodegenerative dementias and apathy.