scholarly journals Modulating Agency in Hypnosis: Using Suggestion to Induce Self-Tickling

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vince Polito ◽  
Andrew Roberts ◽  
Michael Connors ◽  
Amanda Barnier
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
Sense Of Control ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Demand Characteristics ◽  
Sensory Effects ◽  
Hypnotic Induction ◽  
Clinical Conditions

Agency is the subjective sense of control we have over our actions. According to an influential model, this arises when the predicted sensory effects of movements match actual sensory feedback. Consistent with this, previous research found that mechanically manipulating the sensory consequences of actions creates the illusion that they are externally-produced. Across three experiments, we aimed to develop a hypnotic analogue and clarify specific components of hypnosis that contribute to alterations in agency. We compared different suggestions based on clinical impairments whist varying the hypnotisability of subjects and the presence of a hypnotic induction. We found that suggestions designed to model self-monitoring deficits increased perceived involuntariness of actions; these effects were stronger in high hypnotisable participants and after an induction; and could not be explained by demand characteristics alone. These results highlight the capacity of hypnosis to alter sense of agency and model deficits associated with clinical conditions using hypnosis.

Measuring Agency Change Across the Domain of Hypnosis

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vince Polito ◽  
Amanda Barnier ◽  
Erik Woody
Keyword(s):  
Rating Scale ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
Pass Rates ◽  
Current Experiment ◽  
Multidimensional Construct ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Hypnotic Induction ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Postexperimental Inquiry

Building on Hilgard’s (1965) classic work, the domain of hypnosis has been conceptualised by Barnier, Dienes, and Mitchell (2008) as comprising three levels: (1) classic hypnotic items, (2) responding between and within items, and (3) state and trait. The current experiment investigates sense of agency across each of these three levels. Forty-six high hypnotisable participants completed an ideomotor (arm levitation), a challenge (arm rigidity) and a cognitive (anosmia) item either following a hypnotic induction (hypnosis condition) or without a hypnotic induction (wake condition). In a postexperimental inquiry, participants rated their feelings of control at three time points for each item: during the suggestion, test and cancellation phases. They also completed the Sense of Agency Rating Scale (Polito, Barnier, & Woody, 2013) for each item. Pass rates, control ratings, and agency scores fluctuated across the different types of items and for the three phases of each item; also, control ratings and agency scores often differed across participants who passed versus failed each item. Interestingly, whereas a hypnotic induction influenced the likelihood of passing items, it had no direct effect on agentive experiences. These results suggest that altered sense of agency is not a unidimensional or static quality “switched on” by hypnotic induction, but a dynamic multidimensional construct that varies across items, over time and according to whether individuals pass or fail suggestions.

scholarly journals Too much or too little? Disorders of agency on a spectrum

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-99
Author(s):  
Valentina Petrolini
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
False Confessions ◽  
Sense Of Control ◽  
Thought Insertion ◽  
Auditory Verbal Hallucinations ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Frequency Intensity

Disorders of agency could be described as cases where people encounter difficulties in assessing their own degree of responsibility or involvement with respect to a relevant action or event. These disturbances in one’s sense of agency appear to be meaningfully connected with some mental disorders and with some symptoms in particular—i.e. auditory verbal hallucinations, thought insertion, pathological guilt. A deeper understanding of these experiences may thus contribute to better identification and possibly treatment of people affected by such disorders. In this paper I explore disorders of agency to flesh out their phenomenology in more detail as well as to introduce some theoretical distinctions between them. Specifically, I argue that we may better understand disorders of agency by characterizing them as dimensional. In §1 I explore the cases of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations (AVH) and pathological guilt and I show that they lie at opposite ends of the agency spectrum (i.e. hypoagency versus hyperagency). In §2 I focus on two intermediate cases of hypo- and hyper- agency. These are situations that, despite being very similar to pathological ones, may be successfully distinguished from them in virtue of quantitative factors (e.g. duration, frequency, intensity). I first explore the phenomenon of mind wandering as an example of hypoagency, and I then discuss the phenomenon of false confessions as an example of hyperagency. While cases of hypoagency exemplify situations where people experience their own thoughts, bodies, or actions as something beyond their control, experiences of hyperagency provide an illusory sense of control over actions or events.

scholarly journals Sense of Agency in Multi-Step Actions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Garrido-Vásquez ◽  
Tanja Rock
Keyword(s):  
Present Experiment ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
Implicit Measure ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Perception Of Causality ◽  
Sensory Effects ◽  
One Step ◽  
Sensory Attenuation ◽  
The One

In our daily lives, we frequently execute actions that require several steps to bring about the outcome. However, investigations on how the sense of agency—the sense of controlling our actions and their outcomes—evolves in multi-step actions are still lacking. The purpose of the present research is to fill this gap. In the present study, the participants executed one-step, two-step, and three-step actions in which one, two, or three keys had to be pressed consecutively to generate a tone. We used sensory attenuation as an implicit measure of the sense of agency. Sensory attenuation means that self-produced sensory effects are perceived as less intense than externally generated effects. In the present experiment, sensory attenuation was measured in a psychophysical paradigm and increased in multi-step actions compared to the one-step action. We also asked the participants to explicitly rate the amount to which they felt that they had generated the tone. Ratings were highest in the one-step condition and dropped for multi-step actions, thus showing the opposite pattern of the sensory attenuation data. We assume that enhanced sensory attenuation in multi-step actions could be due to increased effort or more accurate sensorimotor predictions of action effects. The decrease in explicit ratings for multi-step actions might be attributed to reduced perception of causality.

scholarly journals Parieto-Occipital Alpha and Low-Beta EEG Power Reflect Sense of Agency

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 743
Author(s):  
Hani M. Bu-Omer ◽  
Akio Gofuku ◽  
Kenji Sato ◽  
Makoto Miyakoshi
Keyword(s):  
Hand Movement ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Delay Condition ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
Current Dipole ◽  
Power Spectral ◽  
Artifact Rejection ◽  
Dipole Modeling ◽  
Eeg Power ◽  
Clinical Conditions

The sense of agency (SoA) is part of psychophysiological modules related to the self. Disturbed SoA is found in several clinical conditions, hence understanding the neural correlates of the SoA is useful for the diagnosis and determining the proper treatment strategies. Although there are several neuroimaging studies on SoA, it is desirable to translate the knowledge to more accessible and inexpensive EEG-based biomarkers for the sake of applicability. However, SoA has not been widely investigated using EEG. To address this issue, we designed an EEG experiment on healthy adults (n = 15) to determine the sensitivity of EEG on the SoA paradigm using hand movement with parametrically delayed visual feedback. We calculated the power spectral density over the traditional EEG frequency bands for ten delay conditions relative to no delay condition. Independent component analysis and equivalent current dipole modeling were applied to address artifact rejection, volume conduction, and source localization to determine the effect of interest. The results revealed that the alpha and low-beta EEG power increased in the parieto-occipital regions in proportion to the reduced SoA reported by the subjects. We conclude that the parieto-occipital alpha and low-beta EEG power reflect the sense of agency.

scholarly journals Speaking with an alien voice: Flexible sense of agency during vocal production

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias K. Franken ◽  
Robert Hartsuiker ◽  
Petter Johansson ◽  
Lars Hall ◽  
Andreas Lind
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Feedback ◽  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
Comparison Process ◽  
Vocal Production ◽  
Internal Representations ◽  
Normal Voice ◽  
Comparator Model ◽  
Joint Contribution

Speakers monitor auditory feedback during speech production in order to correct for speech errors. The comparator model proposes that this process is supported by comparing sensory feedback to internal predictions of the sensory consequences of articulation. Additionally, this comparison process is proposed to support the sense of agency over vocal output. The current study tests this hypothesis by asking whether mismatching auditory feedback leads to a decrease in the sense of agency as measured by speakers’ responses to pitch-shifted feedback. Participants vocalized while auditory feedback was unexpectedly and briefly pitch-shifted. In addition, in one block, the entire vocalization’s pitch was baseline-shifted (‘alien voice’), while it was not in the other block (‘normal voice’). Participants compensated for the pitch shifts even in the alien voice condition, suggesting that agency was flexible. This is problematic for the classic comparator model, where a mismatching feedback would lead to a loss of agency. Alternative models are discussed in light of these findings, including an adapted comparator model and the inferential account, which suggests that agency is inferred from the joint contribution of several multisensory sources of evidence. Together, these findings suggest that internal representations of one’s own voice are more flexible than often assumed.

scholarly journals Categorical perception of control

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Wen ◽  
Naoto Shimazaki ◽  
Ryu Ohata ◽  
Atsushi Yamashita ◽  
Hajime Asama ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Categorical Perception ◽  
Category Boundary ◽  
External World ◽  
Attention Allocation ◽  
Sense Of Control ◽  
Physical Change ◽  
Distinct Entity ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
The World

The self is a distinct entity from the rest of the world, and actions and sensory feedback are our channels of interaction with the external world. This study examined how the sense of control influences people’s perception of sensorimotor input under the framework of categorical perception. Experiment 1 showed that the sensitivity (d′) of detecting a 20% change in control from no change was higher when the changes occurred at the control-category boundary, than within each category. Experiment 2 showed that the control categories greatly affected early attention allocation even when the judgment of control was unnecessary to the task. Taking together, these results showed that our perceptual and cognitive systems are designed to be highly sensitive to small changes in control that build up to a determinant change in the control category within a relatively narrow boundary zone between categories, compared to a continuous, gradual physical change in control.

Sense of Agency and Sense of Control Measure

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Shyam Sundar ◽  
Eun Go ◽  
Hyang-Sook Kim ◽  
Bo Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Control Measure ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
Sense Of Control

Staying Out

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marieke Liem
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Aging Out ◽  
Strong Sense ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
Sense Of Control ◽  
Support Structures ◽  
And Control

Chapter ten delves deeper into the factors the interviewees mentioned as key to staying out. These included aging out of crime, a healthy fear for the conditions of parole, and self-efficacy, or having a sense of choice and control over one’s life. Non-incarcerated interviewees, as opposed to re-incarcerated individuals, reflected a strong sense of agency in their narrative. The process of desistance is thus not the result of societal forces, as emphasized by life-course theorists. Nor does it seem to be a resolution of an individual to change, as the vast majority of interviewees said that they underwent a transformation leading to a better version of themselves. What seems to be crucial for lifers in being successful in staying out on parole is a combination of social support structures, having regained a sense of control, and a strong awareness of the restraints that govern their day-to-day life.

scholarly journals Wearable brain imaging with multimodal physiological monitoring

2018 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 564-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary E. Strangman ◽  
Vladimir Ivkovic ◽  
Quan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Human Performance ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Cerebral Oxygenation ◽  
Tissue Imaging ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Physiological Monitoring ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Brain Physiology ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Clinical Conditions

The brain is a central component of cognitive and physical human performance. Measures, including functional brain activation, cerebral perfusion, cerebral oxygenation, evoked electrical responses, and resting hemodynamic and electrical activity are all related to, or can predict, health status or performance decrements. However, measuring brain physiology typically requires large, stationary machines that are not suitable for mobile or self-monitoring. Moreover, when individuals are ambulatory, systemic physiological fluctuations—e.g., in heart rate, blood pressure, skin perfusion, and more—can interfere with noninvasive brain measurements. In efforts to address the physiological monitoring and performance assessment needs for astronauts during spaceflight, we have developed easy-to-use, wearable prototypes, such as NINscan, for near-infrared scanning, which can collect synchronized multimodal physiology data, including hemodynamic deep-tissue imaging (including brain and muscles), electroencephalography, electrocardiography, electromyography, electrooculography, accelerometry, gyroscopy, pressure, respiration, and temperature measurements. Given their self-contained and portable nature, these devices can be deployed in a much broader range of settings—including austere environments—thereby, enabling a wider range of novel medical and research physiology applications. We review these, including high-altitude assessments, self-deployable multimodal e.g., (polysomnographic) recordings in remote or low-resource environments, fluid shifts in variable-gravity, or spaceflight analog environments, intracranial brain motion during high-impact sports, and long-duration monitoring for clinical symptom-capture in various clinical conditions. In addition to further enhancing sensitivity and miniaturization, advanced computational algorithms could help support real-time feedback and alerts regarding performance and health.

Sound Discrimination Ability of Children with Misarticulation of the /R/ Sound

1973 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 415-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia I. Wolfe ◽  
Ruth Beckey Irwin
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
External Source ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Discrimination Ability ◽  
Monitoring Task ◽  
Sound Discrimination

The ability of 40 children with the consistent misarticulation of the /r/ sound to perceive their error production was evaluated in two tasks of sound discrimination, one, an interoceptive or self-monitoring task in which the child compared his own live-voice sound with that of another speaker; the other, an exteroceptive task in which the child compared both his own sound and that of another speaker, recorded and played back from an external source. Results indicated that the error sound, in contrast to standard sound production, was discriminated more accurately in the exteroceptive than in the interoceptive task. The role of sensory feedback in sound discrimination is discussed along with implications for therapy for misarticulation.

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