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Updated: Aug 9, 2025
08:01
Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency
Published on: October 28, 2020
5.7K
Neural Substrates of Body Ownership and Agency during Voluntary Movement
Zakaryah Abdulkarim1, Arvid Guterstam2, Zineb Hayatou3
1Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden zakaryah.abdulkarim@ki.se.
Summary
The brain uses distinct regions for body ownership and agency during movement, with some overlap in premotor cortex. These findings clarify how we sense control and belonging, aiding prosthetic limb development.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Psychology
Background:
- Body ownership and agency are key to bodily self-consciousness.
- Previous research studied these aspects separately, not their interaction during movement.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the neural correlates of body ownership and agency during voluntary movement.
- Examine the overlap and interaction between these two experiences.
Main Methods:
- Used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a moving rubber hand illusion.
- Elicited the illusion with active or passive finger movements.
- Isolated brain activity related to ownership, agency, and their interaction.
Main Results:
- Body ownership correlated with activity in premotor, posterior parietal, and cerebellar regions.
- Agency correlated with activity in dorsal premotor and superior temporal cortex.
- Overlapping activity found in dorsal premotor cortex; somatosensory cortex showed interaction effects.
Conclusions:
- Neural representations of agency and ownership are largely distinct but interact during voluntary movement.
- Overlap in premotor cortex and interaction in somatosensory cortex are crucial.
- Findings inform theories of bodily self-consciousness and prosthetic limb development.
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