Figure 1.

Multistep processes behind the sense of agency extending from lower sensorimotor to higher cognitive level processing. This schematic is an overview combing the two influential theories of the sense of agency: 1) the comparator model (Miall and Wolpert 1996; Blakemore et al. 1998, 2000) and 2) the two-step account of agency (Synofzik et al. 2008, 2013). Considering the two theoretical models together, agency attribution is achieved through the multistep processes extending from lower sensorimotor to higher cognitive level. The hypothesis in the current study is that some brain regions represent the immediate output of sensorimotor processing, while others represent the information directly leading to agency attribution. The background yellow gradation depicts the level of the information represented in the brain from sensorimotor to cognitive level, which is the main target of the current study. In Synofzik et al. (2008), the sense of agency encompasses two levels of representation: a nonconceptual feeling and a conceptual judgment of agency. The term “agency attribution” (or “self-other attribution”) in the current study corresponds to a conceptual judgment of agency. We assume that the process leading to the conceptual judgment of agency (not including the judgment process itself) based on the lower sensorimotor information is a nonconceptual “feeling of agency.” We use the term “sense of agency” to include both a nonconceptual feeling and a conceptual judgment of agency.