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The self in action effects: selective attenuation of self-generated sounds
Carmen Weiss1, Arvid Herwig, Simone Schütz-Bosbach
1Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstr. 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. cweiss@cbs.mpg.de
Cognition
|July 26, 2011
Summary
The sense of self-agency, our feeling of controlling actions, is uniquely private. Our study shows self-generated sounds are perceived differently than those from others, highlighting a unique self-experience.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Sensory Perception
Background:
- Self-agency, the experience of generating and controlling actions, is crucial for selfhood.
- Internal motor signals are thought to attenuate sensory consequences of self-generated actions.
- Shared action representations challenge the uniqueness of self-agency, suggesting similar attenuation for self and others' actions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the perceptual experience of self-agency.
- To compare sensory attenuation for self-generated versus observed sensory effects.
- To determine if self-agency has a unique perceptual quality distinct from external influences.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted comparing loudness perception of sounds.
- Participants judged the loudness of sounds that were self-generated, generated by another person, or generated by a computer.
- Sensory attenuation was measured by comparing perceived loudness across conditions.
Main Results:
- A significant reduction in loudness perception was found specifically for self-generated sounds.
- No significant difference in loudness perception was observed between sounds generated by another person and those generated by a computer.
- These findings suggest a unique perceptual quality associated with one's own agentive influence.
Conclusions:
- The experience of self-agency possesses a distinct perceptual quality differentiating it from external influences.
- Self-agency is not a socially shared experience but rather a unique and private aspect of selfhood.
- This challenges theories suggesting shared mechanisms for self and other action processing.
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