Summary 

In my PhD project I have focussed on investigating sense of agency, i.e. the conscious experience we have of ourselves being the cause of an action. 

The first paper (Jensen, Di Costa, & Haggard, under review) is a practical guide to conducting experiments on agency and some caveat one can face. The second article (Jensen, Vagnoni, Overgaard, & Haggard, 2014) found evidence that memory of our actions are based upon what we intended to do and not what actually happens to our body. This experiment used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. The third article (Jensen, Vinding, & Overgaard, submitted) is based on an magnetoencephalography (MEG) study. It found that the parietal cortex is active in distal intention, i.e. intentions for future actions, while no activity was present in the same area when creating proximal intentions, i.e. intentions to act now. This is evidence that distal and proximal intentions have different neural underpinnings and are therefore different kinds of intentions. The fourth article (Jensen, Overgaard, & Overgaard, In preparation) also used a MEG study and found that hypnosis induced involuntary movements was initiated differently in the M1 and the pre-motor areas than voluntary actions.

Together these papers suggest a vital role for the parietal cortex in at least distal intentions. Furthermore it indicates that the parietal cortex might merit a bigger role in our understanding of sense of agency than previously assumes, since intentions appear to be a dominant component of our memory of actions.

Opponents:

• Dr James Moore, senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London
• Prof. Axel Cleeremans, Professor of Cognitive Science, Université Libre de Bruxelles — N.F.S.R. Research

ALL ARE WELCOME