Humans and monkeys distinguish between self-generated, opposing, and random actions

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Comparative Psychology

Background:

• Self-agency, crucial for self-recognition and awareness, arises from integrating thoughts, actions, and outcomes.
• Understanding self-agency provides insights into consciousness and decision-making processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the sense of self-agency in humans and rhesus macaques.
• To compare cross-species abilities in identifying self-controlled actions.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments were conducted involving humans and rhesus macaques.
• Participants identified a self-controlled cursor among distractors using visual cues.
• Task variations included different distractor types and movement patterns.

Main Results:

• Both humans and macaques successfully identified the self-controlled cursor.
• Macaques showed enhanced performance when distractor cursors moved in the opposite direction.
• Decision-making in both species involved integrating perceptual and self-agency cues.

Conclusions:

• The sense of self-agency is conserved across humans and macaques.
• Cross-species comparison reveals shared mechanisms in action monitoring and decision-making.
• Findings contribute to understanding the evolution of self-awareness.