Action selection and simultaneously presented emotional sound and reward: Differential effects on implicit and explicit sense of agency

The sense of agency (SoA) refers to the subjective experience of influencing the external world through actions. This study explores how action selection and simultaneous affective outcomes impact implicit and explicit SoA. In two experiments, participants performed free or instructed key presses followed by simultaneously presenting a reward picture (gain, loss) with an emotional sound (positive, neutral, negative). Experiment 1 showed enhanced implicit SoA for free (vs. instructed) actions and positive (vs. negative) sound. Experiment 2 revealed enhanced explicit SoA for reward gain (vs. loss) and positive (vs. negative) sound. Results suggest that SoA formation at different consciousness levels depends on various cues' absolute and relative strengths. Action selection only influenced implicit SoA, while affective outcomes showed differential effects: emotional sound impacted implicit SoA, and both reward and sound influenced explicit SoA, with motivation-related reward showing stronger effects. This research advances the understanding of cue integration mechanisms underlying SoA formation.