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Related Experiment Video

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A Naturalistic Setup for Presenting Real People and Live Actions in Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Studies
07:43

A Naturalistic Setup for Presenting Real People and Live Actions in Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Studies

Published on: August 4, 2023

Experimenting with the acting self.

Manos Tsakiris1, Patrick Haggard

  • 1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK.

Cognitive Neuropsychology
|November 2, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Neuroscience reveals the "acting self" (efferent information) shapes our sense of self by influencing the "sensory self" (afferent information). This agency, rooted in voluntary action, is key to self-awareness.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Philosophy of Mind

Background:

  • The concept of the embodied agent is emerging as a scientific framework for understanding the self.
  • Selfhood relies on awareness of both one's actions and one's body.
  • The interplay between efferent (outgoing) and afferent (incoming) information in self-awareness requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review experimental evidence differentiating the "acting self" from the "sensory self."
  • To explore how these differences influence perception during voluntary action.
  • To investigate the roles of somatosensory perception, time-awareness, and self-recognition in selfhood.

Main Methods:

  • Review of experimental studies designed to separate afferent and efferent informational contributions.
  • Analysis of research across somatosensory perception, temporal awareness, and self-recognition.
  • Focus on phenomenological and functional distinctions between action and sensation.

Main Results:

  • Intentional action provides a contextual framework for awareness, modulating bodily perception.
  • The "acting self," driven by efferent signals, influences the phenomenal experience of the "sensory self."
  • Voluntary movement's agentic nature is central to this modulation.

Conclusions:

  • The sense of agency appears to be primarily efferent-driven, originating from pre-action neural processes.
  • The acting self actively shapes the sensory self, contributing to a unified experience of selfhood.
  • Understanding efferent-afferent interactions is crucial for comprehending embodied self-awareness.