scholarly journals Sense of Agency Beyond Sensorimotor Process: Decoding Self-Other Action Attribution in the Human Brain

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 4076-4091
Author(s):  
Ryu Ohata ◽  
Tomohisa Asai ◽  
Hiroshi Kadota ◽  
Hiroaki Shigemasu ◽  
Kenji Ogawa ◽  
...  

Abstract The sense of agency is defined as the subjective experience that “I” am the one who is causing the action. Theoretical studies postulate that this subjective experience is developed through multistep processes extending from the sensorimotor to the cognitive level. However, it remains unclear how the brain processes such different levels of information and constitutes the neural substrates for the sense of agency. To answer this question, we combined two strategies: an experimental paradigm, in which self-agency gradually evolves according to sensorimotor experience, and a multivoxel pattern analysis. The combined strategies revealed that the sensorimotor, posterior parietal, anterior insula, and higher visual cortices contained information on self-other attribution during movement. In addition, we investigated whether the found regions showed a preference for self-other attribution or for sensorimotor information. As a result, the right supramarginal gyrus, a portion of the inferior parietal lobe (IPL), was found to be the most sensitive to self-other attribution among the found regions, while the bilateral precentral gyri and left IPL dominantly reflected sensorimotor information. Our results demonstrate that multiple brain regions are involved in the development of the sense of agency and that these show specific preferences for different levels of information.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryu Ohata ◽  
Tomohisa Asai ◽  
Hiroshi Kadota ◽  
Hiroaki Shigemasu ◽  
Kenji Ogawa ◽  
...  

AbstractA sense of agency can be defined as a subjective experience that I am the one who is causing or generating an action. Several brain regions have been proposed as neural substrates of the subjective experience; however, how the information is processed and organized by each region to achieve the sense of agency still remains unclear. In this study, we have clarified the neural representations corresponding to three processes namely, sensorimotor error, feeling of agency, and judgment of agency. Specifically, we found that the widespread sensorimotor areas represent sensorimotor error information. The right inferior parietal lobe represents the information solely on self-/other-attribution even during movements, which corresponds to the feeling of agency. Finally, the right inferior frontal gyrus shows a distinct representation between self- and other-attribution immediately before reporting the judgment on the movement attribution. These results suggest that the brain builds a sense of agency by developing distinct types of information each corresponding to the three processes with the passage of time.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Hawes ◽  
H Moriah Sokolowski ◽  
Chuka Bosah Ononye ◽  
Daniel Ansari

Where and under what conditions do spatial and numerical skills converge and diverge in the brain? To address this question, we conducted a meta-analysis of brain regions associated with basic symbolic number processing, arithmetic, and mental rotation. We used Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) to construct quantitative meta-analytic maps synthesizing results from 86 neuroimaging papers (~ 30 studies/cognitive process). All three cognitive processes were found to activate bilateral parietal regions in and around the intraparietal sulcus (IPS); a finding consistent with shared processing accounts. Numerical and arithmetic processing were associated with overlap in the left angular gyrus, whereas mental rotation and arithmetic both showed activity in the middle frontal gyri. These patterns suggest regions of cortex potentially more specialized for symbolic number representation and domain-general mental manipulation, respectively. Additionally, arithmetic was associated with unique activity throughout the fronto-parietal network and mental rotation was associated with unique activity in the right superior parietal lobe. Overall, these results provide new insights into the intersection of numerical and spatial thought in the human brain.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaoxia Wei ◽  
Ruoguang Si ◽  
Youfa Li ◽  
Ying Yao ◽  
Lizhen Chen ◽  
...  

Volition is described as a psychological construct with great emphasis on the sense of agency. During volitional behavior, an individual always presents a volitional quality, an intrapersonal trait for dealing with adverse circumstances, which determines the individual’s persistence of action toward their intentions or goals. Elite athletes are a group of experts with superior volitional quality and, thereby, could be regarded as the natural subject pool to investigate this mental trait. The purpose of this study was to examine brain morphometric characteristics associated with volitional quality by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the Scale of Volitional Quality. We recruited 16 national-level athletes engaged in short track speed skating and 18 healthy controls matched with age and gender. A comparison of a parcel-wise brain anatomical characteristics of the healthy controls with those of the elite athletes revealed three regions with significantly increased cortical thickness in the athlete group. These regions included the left precuneus, the left inferior parietal lobe, and the right superior frontal lobe, which are the core brain regions involved in the sense of agency. The mean cortical thickness of the left inferior parietal lobe was significantly correlated with the independence of volitional quality (a mental trait that characterizes one’s intendency to control his/her own behavior and make decisions by applying internal standards and/or objective criteria). These findings suggest that sports training is an ideal model for better understanding the neural mechanisms of volitional behavior in the human brain.


2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 1570-1576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Esterman ◽  
Timothy Verstynen ◽  
Richard B. Ivry ◽  
Lynn C. Robertson

In some individuals, a visually presented letter or number automatically evokes the perception of a specific color, an experience known as color-grapheme synesthesia. It has been suggested that parietal binding mechanisms play a role in the phenomenon. We used a noninvasive stimulation technique, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), to determine whether the posterior parietal lobe is critical for the integration of color and shape in color-grapheme synesthesia, as it appears to be for normal color-shape binding. Using a color-naming task with colored letters that were either congruent or incongruent with the synesthetic photism, we demonstrate that inhibition of the right posterior parietal lobe with repetitive TMS transiently attenuates synesthetic binding. These findings suggest that synesthesia (the induction of color from shape) relies on similar mechanisms as found in normal perception (where the perception of color is induced by wavelength).


2018 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 348-368
Author(s):  
Вадим [Vadim] Юрьевич [IUr'evich] Меликян [Melikian] ◽  
Анна [Anna] Васильевна [Vasil'evna] Меликян [Melikian]

The phenomenon of syntactic semioimplicationSemioimplicative meaning is a “derived,” secondary meaning. The typical example of a semioimplicative meaning in syntax is the use of the positive constructions in the meaning of the negative ones and vice versa (converted meaning). The semioimplicative sentence interpretation scarcely has logical limitations. Most sentences, given the right intonation, can undergo an enantiosemic conversion. The ironical negation can be hidden in practically each sentence. In this article we single out and parameterize the main conditions of such semioimplication and the kinds of language means triggering the semioimplicative mechanism. Besides, we draw attention to the ways of expressing diverse connotations organically linked with the very process of syntactic constructions semioimplication and consistently caused by it. The core of semioimplicative structures is constituted by constructions that are able to express two meanings: direct and transferred (in this case, opposite) meaning. We have termed them “symmetrical” constructions. The sentence models with one meaning opposite to the form expressing it and also the models opposite in sign but not correlated according to some morphological characteristics serve as the periphery of semioimplication (“nonsymmetrical” constructions). The models that possess any language means facilitating their reconsideration as their own opposites are called the “specialized” models in the research. The “non-specialized” models do not have such qualities. The ability to express two opposite meanings can potentially take place on different levels of the sentence model concretization: abstract (syntactic), morphological, general lexical and concrete lexical (i.e., on the level of speech model realization). Each of the types of opposition, both objective and evaluative ones, has its own means of specialization. In the sphere of enantiosemical and evaluative opposition of the sentence meaning the dominating development line of the semioimplication phenomenon is the pursuit of maximal language expressivity, on the one hand, and of monosemanticity, accuracy, and effectiveness, on the other hand. The tendency toward language means economy turns out to be weak in this case. The reason for this process consists in the desire to assign these sentences to the sphere of the expressive syntax by using them exclusively in the secondary, ironical and most expressive meaning. As a result, the nonsymmetrical (the maximally specialized) constructions are 1.5 times more numerous than the symmetrical constructions (ones with moderate specialization). We find research of this subject-matter in its functional-communicative, cognitive, discoursive and pragmatic-linguistic aspects to be to a topical and worthwhile endeavor. Zjawisko semioimplikacji składniowejZnaczenie semioimplikacyjne to znaczenie „pochodne”, wtórne. Typowym przykładem występowania znaczenia semioimplikacyjnego w składni jest używanie konstrukcji pozytywnych w znaczeniu negatywnym i vice versa (konwersja znaczenia). Semioimplikacyjna analiza zdania praktycznie nie napotyka na logiczne ograniczenia. Większość zdań, jeśli towarzyszy im odpowiednia intonacja, w określonych kontekstach może ulegać enantiosemantycznej konwersji: ironiczne zaprzeczenie może skrywać się w praktycznie każdym zdaniu. W tym artykule identyfikujemy i parametryzujemy podstawowe warunki takiej semioimplikacji oraz rodzaje środków językowych, jakie inicjują mechanizm semioimplikacyjny. Zwracamy także uwagę na sposoby wyrażenia różnorakich konotacji związanych organicznie z samym procesem semioimplikacji struktur składniowych i regularnie przez nią wywoływanych. Rdzeniem struktur semioimplikacyjnych są konstrukcje mogące wyrażać oba znaczenia: dosłowne i przenośne (tu: przeciwstawne). Określiliśmy takie konstrukcje mianem „symetrycznych”. Za peryferia zbioru konstrukcji semioimplikacyjnych (za konstrukcje „niesymetryczne”) można uznać modele zdań mających tylko jedno znaczenie, które jednak jest przeciwstawne w stosunku do wyrażającej go formy, oraz modele o przeciwnym znaku, ale nieskorelowane pod względem niektórych parametrów morfologicznych. Modele zdań dysponujące środkami językowymi ułatwiającymi zmianę ich znaczenia na przeciwstawne nazywamy „wyspecjalizowanymi”. Modele „niewyspecjalizowane” nie dysponują takiego rodzaju środkami. Zdolność wyrażania dwóch przeciwstawnych znaczeń może potencjalnie zachodzić na różnych poziomach konkretyzacji modelu: abstrakcyjnym (składniowym), morfologicznym, leksykalnym ogólnym i leksykalnym konkretnym (tzn. na poziomie językowej realizacji modelu). Każdy z typów przeciwstawności, czy to przedmiotowej czy wartościującej, dysponuje własnymi środkami specjalizacji. W sferze enantiosemicznej i wartościującej przeciwstawności znaczeń zdania dominującym kierunkiem rozwoju zjawiska semioimplikacji jest dążenie, z jednej strony, do maksymalnej wyrazistości języka, z drugiej zaś – do jego jednoznaczności, precyzji, efektywności. Tendencja do zwiększania ekonomii środków językowych okazuje się w badanym przypadku słabsza. Przyczyną tego procesu jest dążenie do trwałego przypisania takich zdań ekspresyjnej sferze składni za sprawą używania ich wyłącznie w drugim, ironicznym, a zarazem bardziej ekspresyjnym znaczeniu. W rezultacie konstrukcji niesymetrycznych (maksymalnie wyspecjalizowanych) jest w przybliżeniu 1,5 raza więcej niż konstrukcji symetrycznych (umiarkowanie wyspecjalizowanych). Uważamy za wskazane dalsze badania nad zarysowaną tu tematyką w jej aspekcie funkcjonalno-komunikacyjnym, kognitywnym, dyskursywnym i pragmalingwistycznym.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiying Zhao ◽  
Shuxia Yao ◽  
Jana Zweerings ◽  
Xinqi Zhou ◽  
Feng Zhou ◽  
...  

AbstractReal-time fMRI guided neurofeedback training has gained increasing interest as a non-invasive brain regulation technique with the potential to normalize functional brain alterations in therapeutic contexts. Individual variations in learning success and treatment response have been observed, yet the neural substrates underlying the learning of self-regulation remain unclear. Against this background, we explored potential brain structural predictors for learning success with pooled data from three real-time fMRI datasets. Our analysis revealed that gray matter volume of the right putamen could predict neurofeedback learning success across the three datasets (n = 66 in total). Importantly, the original studies employed different neurofeedback paradigms during which different brain regions were trained pointing to a general association with learning success independent of specific aspects of the experimental design. Given the role of the putamen in associative learning the finding may reflect an important role of instrumental learning processes and brain structural variations in associated brain regions for successful acquisition of fMRI neurofeedback-guided self-regulation.


Author(s):  
Katja Kvaale

Katja Kvaale: Last pas de trois in Geneva: a dance for three in the UN saloons with the host leading the dance The purpose of this article is twofold. Taking its point of departure in empirical examples from the 1993 Session of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva, the article attempts partly to analyse how indigenous peoples operate in the UN system, and partly to examine how this touches on classical anthropological notions such as peoplehood, nationhood and culture as distinet and continuous units. It is argued that most of the indigenous inputs at the UNWGIP can be heard as persistent reactions against the member states’ questioning their peoplehood and consequent rights to self-determination. However, it is not the idea to deconstruct the notion of the modem nation State altogether, nor to imply a radical cultural relativity, but rather to establish that the UN is confronting a global reality somewhat more complex than individuals and nation- states. In stating that the right to self-determination is separate from and prior to international law - it has been there since time immemorial - the indigenous representatives are tuming the legal logic of the UN upside down. From their perspective it is thus not a matter of being endowed with rights from a magnanimous UN, but rather a latecoming making up for the wrongdoings of half a millennium. Meanwhile, in asserting cultural continuity and distinetiveness in their politicized self-representation, indigenous peoples are catching anthropology off-guard and without foothold amidst the debris of its recently abandoned paradigms. Ironically, in the case of indigenous peoples the discipline is seemingly facing the incamation of the very notions and concepts just ditched: the exotification of the other, the radical us/them or West/the Rest distinetions, the Levi- Straussian „cold“ timelessness i.e. „conservative" rejection of modemity and development, culture as partly reified and self-sufficient units etc. However, rather than a morally based rejecting attitude towards this phenomenon the discipline would benefit from facing the great theoretical and analytical challenge that lies behind it. Although indigenous peoples and anthropologists are now operating within the same frame of reference to a far higher degree than was the case 25 years ago, it can still prove worthwhile to distinguish between the different levels on which culture is dealt with at different times. Hence, a potential clash between indigenous politieized „authentic culture" on the one hånd and scientific deconstruction of „true culture" on the other can be avoided.


2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Podzebenko ◽  
Gary F. Egan ◽  
John D. G. Watson

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 16 healthy subjects while they undertook orientation discrimination tasks of real rotating and mentally rotating alphanumeric characters. Perception of rotating and stationary abstract characters was also performed. Mental rotation and the perception of alphanumeric characters undergoing real rotation activated equivalent cortical areas, in keeping with the analogue hypothesis of mental rotation. In addition, areas along the dorsal stream, including the V5/middle temporal complex and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), were activated during both the real and imaginary rotary conditions. Within the parietal lobe there were areas of convergence (i.e., recruited by all three motion conditions) and areas of divergence (i.e., selectively activated by a particular condition). Tasks requiring canonical-mirror orientation discrimination revealed involvement of neural substrates localized to the ventrolateral bank of the IPS. Tasks in which this judgment was not performed and during which the subject viewed rotary motion of abstract stimuli recruited activity in the medial bank of the IPS. These results indicate subspecialization of the human posterior parietal lobe according to function.


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