Every day, we do things that cause effects in the outside world with little doubt about who caused what. To some, this sense of agency derives from a post hoc reconstruction of a likely causal relationship between an event and our preceding movements; others propose that the sense of agency originates from prospective comparisons of motor programs and their effects. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that the sense of agency is associated with a brain network including the pre–supplementary motor area (SMA) and dorsal parietal cortex. Transcranial magnetic stimulation affected the sense of agency only when delivered over the pre-SMA and specifically when time-locked to action planning, rather than when the physical consequences of the actions appeared. These findings make a prospective theory of the sense of agency more likely.

每天，我们都在做对外界造成影响的事情，毫不怀疑谁造成了什么。对某些人来说，这种能动性源于对事件与我们之前的运动之间可能的因果关系的事后重建。其他人提出，代理感源于对运动程序及其影响的前瞻性比较。使用功能性磁共振成像，我们发现代理感与大脑网络相关，包括前补充运动区 (SMA) 和背侧顶叶皮层。经颅磁刺激仅在通过前 SMA 传递时影响代理感，特别是在时间锁定到行动计划时，而不是当行动的物理后果出现时。这些发现使关于代理感的前瞻性理论更有可能。