Bodily awareness and action-effect anticipations in voluntary action

Research output: Contribution to journalComment/DebateContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

In his article "On the Necessity of Bodily Awareness for Bodily Action" in this volume of Psyche Hong Yu Wong challenges the claim that bodily awareness is a necessary precondition for being able to voluntarily act with one's body parts (the necessity thesis). Wong discusses empirical findings from studies of (i) deafferented patients, (ii) brain-computer interfaces and (iii) the automaticity of skilled movements, which constitute prima facie counterexamples against a strong version of the necessity thesis. While I consider Wong's arguments as generally convincing, in this commentary I put them in the wider context of psychological theories stressing the role of distal action effects in the control of voluntary action and the experience of agency. Moreover, I point to an ambiguity between first-and third-person readings of the necessity thesis.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)49-58
Number of pages10
Journal Psyche : an interdisciplinary journal of research on consciousness
Volume15
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Peer-reviewedYes