Neural Correlates of the Embodied Sense of Agency
bioRxiv Preprint Server September 6, 2024 Amit Regev Krugwasser, Reina Van der Goot, Geffen Markusfeld et al. preprint
A reduction in the sense of agency—the feeling of being in control of one's own actions—is linked to decreased attenuation in the alpha frequency band and increased power in the theta frequency band of brain activity. Using electroencephalography and a virtual reality paradigm where visual feedback of a finger movement was altered, trials with sensorimotor alterations could be decoded from brain signals with up to 68% accuracy starting around 200 milliseconds after movement onset. Cross-decoding analyses revealed similar neural patterns for reduced agency in both anatomical and spatial alteration conditions starting around 500 milliseconds. These findings support a two-level formation of the sense of agency: an early, domain-specific implicit component and a later, domain-general explicit component.