Contributions of tactile information to the sense of agency and its metacognitive representations

Abstract

We compared the contribution of tactile information to other sources of information in our representations of agency. Participants (N = 40) reached with their right hand toward a ridged plate with a specific orientation and saw online feedback that could match or differ from their action in one of three ways: the physical plate’s orientation, the action’s timing, or the hand’s position in space. Absolute subjective ratings revealed that an increased mismatch in tactile information led to a diminished sense of agency, similar to what has been reported for spatial and temporal mismatches. Further, estimations of metacognitive efficiency revealed similar M-ratios in the identification of tactile violation predictions as compared to temporal violations (but lower than spatial). These findings emphasize the importance of tactile information in shaping our experience of acting voluntarily, and show how this important component can be experimentally probed.Statement of RelevanceThe sense of agency is the feeling that we are the authors of our actions. It is essential not only for the control we assert over our bodies but also for how we interact with interfaces like a computer or a mobile phone. Despite the central role of touch in our daily activities, the role of tactile information in forming our sense of agency is often overlooked. In this project, we used a novel experimental design that allowed us to compare the role of tactile information relative to two other sources of information that have been previously reported to affect our agency, namely temporal and spatial information of the action. We provide evidence for the first time that tactile information is crucial for our subjective experience of agency and a tool to study this role further.