Sense of agency (SoA), the experience of being in control of our voluntary actions and their outcomes, is a key feature of normal human experience. Frontoparietal brain circuits associated with SoA undergo a major maturational process during adolescence. To examine whether this translates to neurodevelopmental changes in agency experience, we investigated two key neural processes associated with SoA, the activity that is leading to voluntary action (Readiness Potential) and the activity that is associated with the action outcome processing (attenuation of auditory N1 and P2 event related potentials, ERPs) in mid-adolescents (13–14), late-adolescents (18–20) and adults (25–28) while they perform an intentional binding task. In this task, participants pressed a button (action) that delivered a tone (outcome) after a small delay and reported the time of the tone using the Libet clock. This action-outcome condition alternated with a no-action condition where an identical tone was triggered by a computer. Mid-adolescents showed greater outcome binding, such that they perceived self-triggered tones as being temporally closer to their actions compared to adults. Suggesting greater agency experience over the outcomes of their voluntary actions during mid-adolescence. Consistent with this, greater levels of attenuated neural response to self-triggered auditory tones (specifically P2 attenuation) were found during mid-adolescence compared to older age groups. This enhanced attenuation decreased with age as observed in outcome binding. However, there were no age-related differences in the readiness potential leading to the voluntary action (button press) as well as in the N1 attenuation to the self-triggered tones. Notably, in mid-adolescents greater outcome binding scores were positively associated with greater P2 attenuation, and smaller negativity in the late readiness potential. These findings suggest that the greater experience of implicit agency observed during mid-adolescence may be mediated by a neural over-suppression of action outcomes (auditory P2 attenuation), and over-reliance on motor preparation (late readiness potential), which we found to become adult-like during late-adolescence. Implications for adolescent development and SoA related neurodevelopmental disorders are discussed.

代理感 (SoA)，即控制我们的自愿行为及其结果的体验，是正常人类体验的一个关键特征。与 SoA 相关的额顶脑回路在青春期经历了一个主要的成熟过程。为了检查这是否会转化为代理经验的神经发育变化，我们研究了与 SoA 相关的两个关键神经过程，导致自愿行动的活动（准备潜力）和与行动结果处理相关的活动（听觉 N1 的衰减）和 P2 事件相关电位 (ERP) 在青少年中期（13-14 岁）、青少年晚期（18-20 岁）和成人（25-28 岁）执行有意识的绑定任务。在这个任务中，参与者按下一个按钮（动作），在一小段延迟后发出音调（结果），并使用 Libet 时钟报告音调的时间。这种动作结果条件与无动作条件交替出现，其中计算机触发了相同的音调。中青少年表现出更大的结果约束力，因此与成年人相比，他们认为自我触发的语气在时间上更接近他们的行为。建议在青春期中期自愿行动的结果有更多的机构经验。与此一致的是，与年龄较大的年龄组相比，在青春期中期发现对自我触发的听觉音调（特别是 P2 衰减）的衰减神经反应水平更高。正如在结果结合中观察到的那样，这种增强的衰减随着年龄的增长而降低。然而，在导致自主动作（按下按钮）的准备潜力以及对自触发音调的 N1 衰减方面，没有与年龄相关的差异。值得注意的是，在青少年中期，更高的结果结合分数与更大的 P2 衰减呈正相关，而晚期准备潜力的负性更小。这些发现表明，在青春期中期观察到的更多内隐代理体验可能是由神经过度抑制动作结果（听觉 P2 衰减）和过度依赖运动准备（后期准备潜力）介导的，我们发现这在青春期后期变得像成年人一样。讨论了对青少年发育和 SoA 相关神经发育障碍的影响。