Interplay of Agency and Ownership: The Intentional Binding and Rubber Hand Illusion Paradigm Combined

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.

Embodied neurofeedback with an anthropomorphic robotic hand

“…A 10-item questionnaire was adopted from previous studies3233 and used for the assessment of subjective experience (Table 1). The questions were read by the experimenter at the end of each block and the participants indicated their level of agreement on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from −3 (“totally disagree”) to +3 (“totally agree”).…”

“…We predicted that an embodied feedback signal closely resembling the mental act performed should be more intuitive for neurofeedback operation than non-embodiable feedback and therefore should also lead to a better NF-MIT performance18. As an artificial hand is known only to induce SoO, if it is placed in an anatomically-congruent position323334, we tested the hypothesized benefit of embodied feedback by comparing neurofeedback delivered by the artificial hand in a congruent position with that delivered in an incongruent position. We also asked whether NF-MIT performance and SoA depend on the validity of the neurofeedback signal.…”

The role of agency for perceived ownership in the virtual hand illusion

“…Lastly, Riemer, Kleinböhl, Hölzl, and Trojan (2013) report equally strong subjective ratings for active-movements and visuotactile-stimulated conditions and both Tsakiris et al (2006) and Ehrsson (2012, 2014) found no difference in ownership ratings or proprioceptive drift between three conditions that differed in activity. To add to the confusion, Braun, Thorne, Hildebrandt, and Debener (2014) found some associations and some double-dissociations between sense of agency and sense of ownership.…”

Extending the Body for Interaction with Reality

“…Agency on the other hand is the feeling of directly causing changes in the environment. With contradicting findings, the correlation of agency and ownership is still unclear [9,13,31,32,59].…”

“…• Anatomical plausibility: the artificial limb must be in a plausible posture (position and orientation) with respect to the body [9,14,18,30,31,32,34,48,55].…”