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Observing the Transformation of Bodily Self-consciousness in the Squeeze-machine Experiment

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Acting, seeing, and conscious awareness.

R E Passingham¹, H C Lau²

¹Department of Experimental Psychology, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK; Wellcome Centre for NeuroImaging, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.

Neuropsychologia

|June 18, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The dorsal prefrontal cortex is involved in judging agency ("I did it") and visual detection ("I saw it"). This brain region

Keywords:

Agency Awareness Humans Macaque monkeys Prefrontal cortex Seeing fMRI

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience
Primate Cognition

Background:

The subjective experience of agency and visual detection are fundamental to human cognition.
Previous research has localized aspects of agency and visual processing to different brain regions.
The role of the dorsal prefrontal cortex (dPFC) in integrating these distinct judgments remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between judgments of agency and visual detection.
To identify the neural correlates underlying these subjective judgments.
To explore the evolutionary basis for the dPFC's involvement in these cognitive functions.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans to observe brain activity during agency and visual detection tasks.
Electrophysiological recordings in macaque monkeys to examine neuronal responses in the dPFC.
Behavioral tasks involving masked visual stimuli and self-reported agency.

Main Results:

The dorsal prefrontal cortex (dPFC) showed significant activation when human subjects judged their agency in performing actions.
The same dPFC regions were activated when subjects judged confidence in seeing a masked visual stimulus.
Neuronal activity in the dPFC of macaque monkeys distinguished between 'seen' and 'not seen' visual stimuli.

Conclusions:

The dPFC plays a crucial role in abstract judgments of both agency and visual detection.
This involvement likely stems from the dPFC's evolutionary role in sensorimotor control, attention, and rule learning.
These findings suggest a shared neural mechanism for self-referential judgments about actions and perceptions.