Lecture4- Agency

Question 0

What is the brain circuitry for voluntary action?

Answer 0

Prefrontal cortex forms long-term plans and intentions. The supplementary and pre-supplementary motor area prepare the action. The primary motor cortex contains motoneurons specific for muscle a group of muscles. Haggard 2008.

Question 1

What is agency?

Answer 1

Our intentions cause our actions. Voluntary action.

Question 2

Name another circuit for object-oriented actions. Haggard 2008

Answer 2

Premotor cortex, to M1, to parietal cortex, to intraparietal sulcus. This circuit is under debate. It probably acts as a priority map, combining bottom-up inputs and top-down signals to generate saccades and guide attention.

Question 3

What is the readiness potential?

Answer 3

Brain activity leading to the voluntary muscle movement. Manifestation of cortical contribution to premotor planning. Kornhuber and Deecke 1965

Question 4

Where does the readiness potential occur?

Answer 4

In the premotor areas.

Question 5

What are the stages of agency, reported by Haggard 2008?

Answer 5

Deliberation, preparation, lateralization, then neuro signals leave M1 to the spinal cord.

Question 6

Where does deliberation occur?

Answer 6

In the prefrontal cortex.

Question 7

What is lateralisation?

Answer 7

Hand specific preparation. M1. Signal stronger on side contralateral to hand moved.

Question 8

What is electromyogram?

Answer 8

An electrical signal indicating muscle contraction.

Question 9

Libet et al 1983

Answer 9

Observe clock. Note clock position at the time of conscious intention. Perform the action. This means pressing the button. Report clock position at time of conscious intention.

Question 10

Results from Libet et al 1983

Answer 10

Readiness potential 1.5 seconds before movement. Movement is 206ms after conscious intention. Therefore readiness potential occurs about a second before conscious intention

Question 11

Is RP really due to neurons (Fried et al 2011)

Answer 11

Intracranial recordings of neurons in the human brain confirm the neuronal source of the readiness potential. In supplementary motor area

Question 12

Can you run is predicted decision to move? Fried et al 2011

Answer 12

Yes. Can predict decision to move in single trials using data from 256 SMA neurons. 80% accuracy. 700 ms prior to subjects awareness.

Question 13

Criticisms of the Libet experiment

Answer 13

Searle 1983. The plan to act was already made long before the button press. Brain intention is probably earlier, so potentially before the onset of the readiness potential.

Question 14

Another criticism of Libet experiment

Answer 14

The signal may be the lifting of a stop signal. Motor plan is ready but is on hold, and the readiness potential could represent lifting of the stop signal

Question 15

Another study of agency

Answer 15

Fourneret and Jeannerod, 1998

Question 16

What is the sense of agency?

Answer 16

We have a sense that our actions cause effects on the outside world

Question 17

The sense of agency is not always correct

Answer 17

Mistaken about the authorship of their own actions. In schizophrenia for example. Can be misled about origins of action. In hypnosis.

Question 18

Daniel Wegner 2013

Answer 18

The sense of agency can go in both directions. People can believe that they have performed actions they did not do, or that they were not the source of actions that were their own

Question 19

Examples when you believe actions were not your own

Answer 19

Spiritism session in 19th century. Piano stool moved by spirits. Wegner, Sparrow and Winerman 2004

Question 20

Wegner, Sparrow and Winerman 2004

Answer 20

Theory of apparent mental causation. We experience agency when we have a conscious thought for the action, the event consistently occurs after the thought, and there were no other plausible causes

Question 21

What are the three conditions for agency in the relation between thought and action?

Answer 21

Priority, consistency, and exclusivity.

Question 22

What is the experience of conscious?

Answer 22

And that we are doing things