Multilayer model of sense of agency

The sense of agency is the sense that one is causing an action. A predictive account of the sense of agency proposes that sensory prediction based on efferent(motor) information plays a critical role in generating the sense of agency. An alternative hypothesis emphasizes a critical role for post-hoc inferential process in generating the sense of agency. According to this account, we experience the sense of agency when a thought appears in consciousness prior to an action, is consistent with the action, and is not accompanied by conspicuous other causes of the action. In this study, we divided the sense of agency into two layers ; non-conceptual and pre-reflective feeling of agency at the most basic level and conceptual and reflective judgment of agency at the more elaborated level. The results showed that sensory prediction rather than conceptual congruency between preview and action-effect contributed to the feeling of agency which was measured by sensory attenuation, whereas both processes contributed to the judgment of agency. Further experiments revealed that conceptual congruency received relatively higher weighting to judgment of agency when reliable forward model was not formed, whereas other cues of agency than sensory prediction received lower weighting when forward model could provide highly reliable cue. These results suggest that the judgment of agency is produced by weighting each source of information according to its reliability.