How using brain-machine interfaces influences the human sense of agency

Emilie Caspar, Albert De Beir, Gil Lauwers, Axel Cleeremans, Bram Vanderborght

Onderzoeksoutput: Articlepeer review

14 Citaten (Scopus)
271 Downloads (Pure)

Samenvatting

Brain-machine interfaces (BMI) allows individuals to control an external device by controlling their own brain activity, without requiring bodily or muscle movements. Performing voluntary movements is associated with the experience of agency (“sense of agency”) over those movements and their outcomes. When people voluntarily control a BMI, they should likewise experience a sense of agency. However, using a BMI to act presents several differences compared to normal movements. In particular, BMIs lack sensorimotor feedback, afford lower controllability and are associated with increased cognitive fatigue. Here, we explored how these different factors influence the sense of agency across two studies in which participants learned to control a robotic hand through motor imagery decoded online through electroencephalography. We observed that the lack of sensorimotor information when using a BMI did not appear to influence the sense of agency. We further observed that experiencing lower control over the BMI reduced the sense of agency. Finally, we observed that the better participants controlled the BMI, the greater was the appropriation of the robotic hand, as measured by body-ownership and agency scores. Results are discussed based on existing theories on the sense of agency in light of the importance of BMI technology for patients using prosthetic limbs.
Originele taal-2English
Artikelnummere0245191
Aantal pagina's24
TijdschriftPLOS ONE
Volume16
Nummer van het tijdschrift1
DOI's
StatusPublished - 7 jan 2021

Vingerafdruk

Duik in de onderzoeksthema's van 'How using brain-machine interfaces influences the human sense of agency'. Samen vormen ze een unieke vingerafdruk.

Citeer dit