Violating body movement semantics: Neural signatures of self-generated and external-generated errors

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroscience of Agency

Background:

• Understanding the sense of agency relies on distinguishing self-generated actions from external influences.
• Error detection mechanisms are critical for agency, but it's unclear if they differentiate self- versus externally-generated errors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural basis of agency by examining how the brain monitors errors in self-generated versus externally manipulated actions.
• To identify distinct neural signatures for self-generated errors and externally imposed errors.

Main Methods:

• Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from participants performing a reaction time task in a virtual environment.
• Participants experienced congruent (self-action matches avatar) and incongruent (deception) trials.
• A control experiment involved observing avatar actions without direct participation.

Main Results:

• Self-generated errors elicited a frontal-central error-related negativity (Ne/ERN) around 100ms.
• Externally imposed errors (deception) produced a delayed parietal negativity (350-400ms) and an N400 component, similar to semantic violations.
• Observing errors without agency did not elicit the N400, confirming its link to agency violation.

Conclusions:

• Neural evidence reveals distinct error-monitoring loops for self-generated and externally imposed actions.
• This dissociation supports the integration of internal and sensory feedback for maintaining a coherent sense of agency.
• Findings open new research avenues into the neural basis of action monitoring and self-awareness.