The Self in Social Interactions: Sensory Attenuation of Auditory Action Effects Is Stronger in Interactions with Others

作者：Weiss Carmen^*; Herwig Arvid; Schuetz Bo**ach Simone

来源：PLos One, 2011, 6(7): e22723.

DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0022723

The experience of oneself as an agent not only results from interactions with the inanimate environment, but often takes place in a social context. Interactions with other people have been suggested to play a key role in the construal of self-agency. Here, we investigated the influence of social interactions on sensory attenuation of action effects as a marker of pre-reflective self-agency. To this end, we compared the attenuation of the perceived loudness intensity of auditory action effects generated either by oneself or another person in either an individual, non-interactive or interactive action context. In line with previous research, the perceived loudness of self-generated sounds was attenuated compared to sounds generated by another person. Most importantly, this effect was strongly modulated by social interactions between self and other. Sensory attenuation of self-and other-generated sounds was increased in interactive as compared to the respective individual action contexts. This is the first experimental evidence suggesting that pre-reflective self-agency can extend to and is shaped by interactions between individuals.

• 出版日期2011-7-27