Feeling in Control: The Role of Cardiac Timing in the Sense of Agency
Open accessAbstract
The sense of agency describes the experience of controlling one's body to cause desired effects in the world. We explored whether this is influenced by interoceptive processes. Specifically, we investigated whether the sense of agency changes depending on where, in the cardiac cycle (systole or diastole), the action was executed and where the outcome of the action occurred. In two experiments, participants completed decision-making task to win/lose money. Explicit (ratings of control) and implicit (temporal judgement) measures of agency were differentially affected by cardiovascular state. Implicit agency scores were affected by the cardiac phase at the point of action execution. Explicit ratings of control were affected by the type of (free vs. instructed) and by outcome valence (win vs. lose). The time of the action was uniformly distributed across the cardiac cycle. These results show interoceptive impact on agency, but that cardiac cycle may affect explicit and implicit agency differently.
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The finding that action is facilitated during systole compared to diastole is not consistent across studies.
“but again this finding is not consistent across studies 74,75 .”
From Interoceptive rhythms in the brain (2023) · cites this paper as [74]
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Interoceptive rhythms in the brain
Engelen, T., Solcà, M., & Tallon-Baudry, C. (2023) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41593-023-01425-1 · Cited by 207 · see citing works
- Authors
- Herman, A. M., & Tsakiris, M.
- Affiliations
- Royal Holloway University of London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Herman, Aleksandra M.
- Venue
- Affective Science
- Published
- 2020-08-28
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 155-171
- ISSN
- 2662-2041 (ISSN-L)
- 2662-205X
- PMC
- PMC9382947
- OpenAlex
- W3081622934
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 75
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 5
- FWCI
- 2.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Affective Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Royal Holloway University of London
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Free Will and Agency
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Keywords
- sense of agency, cardiac cycle, interoception, systole, diastole, implicit agency, outcome valence, decision-making
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