title: Emotional valence, sense of agency and responsibility: A study using intentional binding.
abstract: We investigated how the emotional valence of an action outcome influences the experience of control, in an intentional binding experiment. Voluntary actions were followed by emotionally positive or negative human vocalisations, or by neutral tones. We used mental chronometry to measure a retrospective component of sense of agency (SoA), triggered by the occurrence of the action outcome, and a prospective component, driven by the expectation that the outcome will occur. Positive outcomes enhanced the retrospective component of SoA, but only when both occurrence and the valence of the outcome were unexpected. When the valence of outcomes was blocked - and therefore predictable - we found a prospective component of SoA when neutral tones were expected but did not actually occur. This prospective binding was absent, and reversed, for positive and negative expected outcomes. Emotional expectation counteracts the prospective component of SoA, suggesting a distancing effect.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London (UCL), United Kingdom. Electronic address: j.christensen@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.affiliation: Human Informatics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan; Automotive Human Factors Research Center, AIST, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshie
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London (UCL), United Kingdom.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Di Costa
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London (UCL), United Kingdom.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Haggard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012649:Self Concept; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Emotion; Intentional binding; Prospective; Retrospective; Sense of agency; Valence