TY - JOUR
T1 - Losing Control in Social Situations
T2 - How the Presence of Others Affects Neural Processes Related to Sense of Agency
AU - Beyer, Frederike
AU - Sidarus, Nura
AU - Fleming, Stephen
AU - Haggard, Patrick
PY - 2018/2/26
Y1 - 2018/2/26
N2 - Social contexts substantially influence individual behavior, but little is known about how they affect cognitive processes related to voluntary action. Previously, it has been shown that social context reduces participants’ sense of agency over the outcomes of their actions and outcome monitoring. In this fMRI study on human volunteers, we investigated the neural mechanisms by which social context alters sense of agency. Participants made costly actions to stop inflating a balloon before it burst. On “social” trials, another player could act in their stead, but we analyzed only trials in which the other player remained passive. We hypothesized that mentalizing processes during social trials would affect decision-making fluency and lead to a decreased sense of agency. In line with this hypothesis, we found increased activity in the bilateral temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), precuneus, and middle frontal gyrus during social trials compared with nonsocial trials. Activity in the precuneus was, in turn, negatively related to sense of agency at a single-trial level. We further found a double dissociation between TPJ and angular gyrus (AG): activity in the left AG was not sensitive to social context but was negatively related to sense of agency. In contrast, activity in the TPJ was modulated by social context but was not sensitive to sense of agency.
AB - Social contexts substantially influence individual behavior, but little is known about how they affect cognitive processes related to voluntary action. Previously, it has been shown that social context reduces participants’ sense of agency over the outcomes of their actions and outcome monitoring. In this fMRI study on human volunteers, we investigated the neural mechanisms by which social context alters sense of agency. Participants made costly actions to stop inflating a balloon before it burst. On “social” trials, another player could act in their stead, but we analyzed only trials in which the other player remained passive. We hypothesized that mentalizing processes during social trials would affect decision-making fluency and lead to a decreased sense of agency. In line with this hypothesis, we found increased activity in the bilateral temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), precuneus, and middle frontal gyrus during social trials compared with nonsocial trials. Activity in the precuneus was, in turn, negatively related to sense of agency at a single-trial level. We further found a double dissociation between TPJ and angular gyrus (AG): activity in the left AG was not sensitive to social context but was negatively related to sense of agency. In contrast, activity in the TPJ was modulated by social context but was not sensitive to sense of agency.
KW - Diffusion of responsibility
KW - FMRI
KW - Mentalizing network
KW - Sense of agency
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045629565&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1523/ENEURO.0336-17.2018
DO - 10.1523/ENEURO.0336-17.2018
M3 - Article
C2 - 29527568
AN - SCOPUS:85045629565
SN - 2373-2822
VL - 5
SP - 1
EP - 13
JO - eNeuro
JF - eNeuro
IS - 1
M1 - e0336-17.2018
ER -