Influence of arousal on intentional binding: Impaired action binding, intact outcome binding

Abstract

Emotional states have been indicated to affect intentional binding, resulting in an increase or decrease as a function of valence and arousal. Sexual arousal is a complex emotional state proven to impair attentional and perceptual processes, and is therefore highly relevant to feeling in control over one’s actions. We suggest that sexual arousal affects intentional binding in the same way as highly negative arousing states such as fear and anger. Ninety participants performed the intentional binding task before and after watching an either sexually arousing or emotionally neutral film clip. Analyses were conducted for the subcomponents action and outcome binding separately including the change in arousal before and after the emotion induction as a continuous measure. Results showed an interactive effect for time of measurement (before and after emotion induction) and arousal change on action binding: a decrease in action binding was noted in participants who reported to be more aroused and an increase in action binding was observed for participants who reported to be less aroused. Results emphasize that alterations in action binding are likely to reflect the deficits in the dopaminergic system involved in action execution. An impaired feeling of control in aroused states may play a crucial role for the underlying psychological mechanisms of impulsive violent behavior.

Attention and expectation likely underlie temporal binding measured using the Libet Clock

“…Incidentally, a general increase in arousal is also known to produce an enhancement of attention to a task (Kahneman, 1973). In line with this, it has also been reported that action binding was reduced for those individuals who reported more arousal after watching erotic film clips (Render & Jansen, 2021).…”

Arousal, interindividual differences and temporal binding a psychophysiological study

“…A complication in our findings is that we observed an increase in valence ratings (from rating two after the pretask to rating 3 after the film clip) in the neutral group along with an increase in action binding after watching the control film clip, which is difficult to explain. The same effect had been found in a previous experiment with a different control film clip (Render & Jansen 2020). This could either reflect an anticipation or learning effect caused by the design as we used the same predictable interval of 250ms between key press and tone in the agency trials.…”

“…For example, temporal binding is increased when arousal is induced by colour and movement of abstract shapes, such as red jumping squares, and when binding is measured with the interval estimation procedure (Wen et al 2015). In contrast, temporal binding as measured by the Libet clock task is partially reduced when arousal is induced via emotionally ambivalent film clips (Render & Jansen 2020).…”

Sense of agency during and following recovery from anorexia nervosa

“…This study did not find an influence of state-anxiety on the SoA. Previous studies have found that general states of arousal as well as negative emotional states, such as fear and anger, reduce the SoA in the IB task (Christensen et al, 2019;Render & Jansen, 2020). Although anxiety and fear share the same underlying brain and behavioural mechanisms, they are two distinct processes; fear is a directional state while anxiety is more diffuse (Barlow, 2004).…”