The fluency with which we plan and execute actions has been demonstrated to increase our sense of agency (SoA). However, the exact mechanisms how fluency influences SoA are still poorly understood. It is an open question whether this effect is primarily driven by fluency of stimulus processing, response preparation or by processes following response execution. In the current study we aim at addressing this question by measuring event-related potentials reflecting pre- and post-response mechanisms and relate them to intentional binding, a measure of implicit SoA. To manipulate the fluency of action we asked participants to perform actions that were congruent or incongruent with a visual target (a finger movement). Participants' actions triggered an auditory outcome. To measure the intentional binding effect we asked participants to estimate the time between the executed actions and the ensuing auditory effects. We found that congruent actions generated a larger intentional binding effect (i.e., stronger time compression between actions and effects) and this positively correlated with a late P300 evoked during the processing of congruent stimuli. At the action selection level, we found a larger central pre-response positivity for incongruent condition as relates to interference effects. Finally, post response mechanisms elicited a larger central negativity for incongruent responses presumably related to uncertainty. We provide new evidence on the determinants of intentional binding driven by the fluency of action, by showing that both pre and post-response mechanisms are crucial in the generation of the feelings of agency. Importantly, stimulus processing and response preparation ERPs seem to be more selectively modulated by congruency-effects given specific brain-behavioral correlations.

中文翻译：

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动作选择冲突和故意约束：ERP研究。

我们计划和执行行动的流利程度已被证明可以增强我们的代理意识（SoA）。但是，人们仍然不清楚流利度如何影响SoA的确切机制。这个效果是否主要由刺激处理，响应准备的流畅性或响应执行后的过程驱动是一个悬而未决的问题。在当前的研究中，我们旨在通过测量反映反应前和反应后机制的事件相关电位来解决这个问题，并将它们与有意绑定（一种隐式SoA度量）相关联。为了操纵动作的流畅性，我们要求参与者执行与视觉目标一致或不一致的动作（手指移动）。参与者的行动触发了听觉结果。为了衡量有意的约束效果，我们要求参与者估计所执行的动作与随后的听觉效果之间的时间。我们发现，全等动作产生了更大的故意约束作用（即，作用和效果之间的时间压缩更强），并且与全等刺激过程中诱发的晚期P300正相关。在动作选择级别，我们发现与干扰效应相关的条件不一致的情况下，较大的中央反应前阳性。最后，响应机制引发了更大的中央消极情绪，这可能与不确定性有关。我们提供了有关行动流畅性驱动的有意约束的决定因素的新证据，通过表明响应前和响应后机制对于产生代理感至关重要。重要的是，给定特定的大脑行为相关性，刺激处理和响应准备ERP似乎更受一致性效应的选择性调节。