Mind control? Creating illusory intentions through a phony brain-computer interface.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Previous research shows that false perceptual feedback can alter action perception.
• However, veridical sensory feedback limits the extent to which individuals can be misled about their intentions.
• Inducing an 'illusion to intend' remains a challenge in experimental settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether individuals can be fooled into believing they intended an action they did not actually intend.
• To explore the conditions under which an 'illusion to intend' can be experimentally induced.

Main Methods:

• A novel experimental paradigm using a simulated brain-computer interface (BCI) was developed.
• Participants were instructed to control a line's movement on a computer screen via the BCI.
• Actual line movements were surreptitiously controlled by a computer program, independent of participant input.

Main Results:

• Participants reported a greater sense of intending to move the line when its movements occurred frequently.
• Conversely, infrequent movements led to fewer reported intentions, even when the BCI was ostensibly active.
• This demonstrates a manipulation of the subjective experience of intention based on feedback frequency.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the ideomotor theory, highlighting the link between action production and the sense of agency.
• This study successfully induced an 'illusion to intend,' suggesting that intention perception is malleable.
• The results illuminate the complex interplay between ideomotor processing, perceived agency, and the generation of action.