title: Absent minds and absent agents: attention-lapse induced alienation of agency.
abstract: We report a novel task designed to elicit transient attention-lapse induced alienation (ALIA) of agency experiences in normal participants. When attention-related action slips occur during the task, participants reported substantially decreased self control as well as a high degree of perceived agency attributed to the errant hand. In addition, participants reported being surprised by, and annoyed with, the actions of the errant hand. We argue that ALIA experiences occur because of constraints imposed by the close and precise temporal relations between intention formation and a contrary action employed in this paradigm. We note similarities between ALIA experiences and anarchic hand sign (AHS) and argue that, despite important differences, both ALIA experiences and AHS phenomenology reflect failures of executive control to intervene and cancel contrary affordance-driven habitual motor plans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. acheyne@uwaterloo.ca
authors.forename: James Allan
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Cheyne
authors.forename: Jonathan S A
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Carriere
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Smilek
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D001290:Attitude; D001364:Awareness; D003243:Consciousness; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D033182:Intention; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007600:Judgment; D007699:Kinesthesis; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011434:Proprioception; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult