The complex nature of agency attribution: Neurophysiological signatures associated to monitoring self vs. external erroneous actions.

Authors

Alba Gomez-Andres, Toni Cunillera, Xim Cerda-Company, David Cucurell, Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells

Published in

iScience. Volume 29. Issue 8. Pages 116803. Aug 21, 2026. Epub Jul 20, 2026.

Abstract

Agency attribution refers to the ability to recognize ourselves as the authors of our actions and their consequences and is central to subjective experience and individual responsibility. Across three event-related potential (ERP) experiments, we characterized electrophysiological and oscillatory neural responses associated with agency prediction errors in healthy participants. Experiments 1 and 3 showed that incongruent hand movements (content agency prediction errors) elicited parietal P600-delta oscillatory activity linked to the attribution of agency to an external source, possibly reflecting judgments of external control and the updating of predictive mental models. In contrast, temporal agency prediction errors induced by delayed movement outcomes (400 ms) reduced internal agency attribution and elicited feedback correct-related positivity (FCRP) and feedback-related negativity (FRN) during correct and erroneous responses, respectively, likely reflecting increased uncertainty and the reactivation of error-monitoring processes. These findings may help clarify neural mechanisms underlying disrupted agency in pathological conditions and the phenomenological experience of "mineness".

PMID:
42495529
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 24 Jul 2026.

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