Does delay in feedback diminish sense of agency? A review

Sense of agency refers to the subjective feeling of controlling one's own action, and through it, external events. Action-effect delay is widely used to disrupt this subjective feeling. Numerous studies have shown that self-reported sense of agency decreases along with the increase in delay. I discussed the distinction between body and external agency, and the possible different effects of delay on them. Furthermore, I reviewed literature that examined the influence of delay on self-reported sense of agency, implicit measures of sense of agency, and control-based action selection, and discussed possible reasons of the reported effects. Delay influences the measures of agency via multiple possible processes, such as graded response, task performance, sensory pre-activation, and temporal perceptual sensitivity. However, the causal relation between action and effect at higher-level of judgment may remain intact even for super-second delays. I conclude that the effects of delay on the sense of agency significantly differ between different levels, and researchers willing to use delay to disturb the sense of agency should carefully clarify which process it may affect.