Intentional binding or perceptual repulsion? Binding in a general population sample decreases with age and increases with psychosis-like experiences.

Abstract

The sense of agency is an essential part of human experience. One aspect of agency, intentional binding, is the subjective contraction of time between a willful, voluntary action and the sensory consequences of that action. Previous studies of intentional binding have mainly been conducted with undergraduate samples. The present study utilized a 200- to 600-ms interval estimation task, with active and passive movements, to assess intentional binding in a community sample (mean age = 44.6, range = 21–60) in whom psychosis-like experiences (PLE) were also assessed. Intentional binding, assessed with a 200-ms interval between an action and a subsequent tone, was observed in younger, but not older, adults. Independent of age, increasing PLE were associated with increased intentional binding at the 200-ms interval. Participants reported the perceived interval to be greater for active movements in comparison to passive movements (perceptual repulsion) at 400- and 600-ms intervals, independent of age. We found an overall decrease in the perceived length of the interval associated with aging, independent of movement condition, and an overall increase in the length of the perceived interval associated with an increase in PLE, independent of age. We propose that aging decreases, whereas PLE increases, the size of the temporal window in which an action and its consequence/s can be bound. Finally, we propose that increasing age is associated with a slowing down, and PLE with a speeding up, of an internal pacemaker, one that may be regulated by dopaminergic transmission.

When one’s sense of agency goes wrong: Absent modulation of time perception by voluntary actions and reduction of perceived length of intervals in passivity symptoms in schizophrenia

“…The perceived interval was not significantly different between Passive and Other conditions (p = 0.87). This pattern of results, where intervals after active movements are perceived as longer compared to passive movements, is a phenomenon termed perceptual repulsion and has been demonstrated previously to be related to the age of the participants (Graham, Martin-Iverson, & Waters, 2015; see discussion below). For Pass.…”

“…-perceived intervals after Active movements to be longer than after Passive movements. We have previously demonstrated in the same sample of healthy controls as the current study that, at the 200 ms interval, younger adults experience intentional binding but this relationship changes with age such that older adults experience intervals after Active movements to be longer than after Passive movements, so-called 'perceptual repulsion' (Graham et al, 2015). We were therefore interested if increasing age was also responsible for the perceptual repulsion observed in Pass.…”

“…Increased age has an effect on timing mechanisms relating to active and passive movements such that healthy older individuals do not display this pattern of perceiving an interval to be shorter after active, relative to passive, movements. Rather, 'perceptual repulsion' is present, whereby intervals after active movements are perceived to be longer than after passive movements (see Graham et al, 2015 for an in-depth examination of this effect). We hypothesised that this may be due to a contraction of the size of a temporal window of associability specific to actions, as a consequence of developmental changes and sensorimotor learning associated with ageing.…”

“…These findings in people with schizophrenia detailed above lead to an apparent contradiction. In a previous study (Graham et al, 2015), we examined the effect of psychosislike experiences (PLE) on time perception. PLE are phenomena that are phenomenologically similar to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia but are present in healthy controls and are not severe enough to constitute a diagnosis of psychosis (Hanssen, Bijl, Vollebergh, & Van Os, 2003;Kendler, Gallagher, Abelson, & Kessler, 1996;Meehl, 1962;Venables, Wilkins, Mitchell, & Raine, 1990).…”

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

“…As arousing states are associated with alterations in the dopaminergic pathways within different brain areas (Damsma, Pfaus, Wenkstern, Phillips, & Fibiger, 1992 ; Giuliano & Allard, 2001 ), a reduction in action binding during arousal reflects the changes in the dopaminergic system involved in action execution (Tanaka et al, 2019 ). Previous researchers have already highlighted dopamine as a determinant of intentional binding (Aarts et al, 2012 ; Graham, Martin-Iverson, & Waters, 2015 ; Moore et al, 2010 ). Several studies have found hints for an involvement of the dopaminergic system in intentional binding, such as ketamine as a model for psychosis (Moore et al, 2011 ), schizophrenia (Haggard, Martin, Taylor-Clarke, Jeannerod, & Franck, 2003 ; Hauser et al, 2011 ; Hur, Kwon, Lee, & Park, 2014 ; Voss et al, 2010 ), psychosis-like experiences, and age (Graham et al, 2015 ), as well as substance use (Render & Jansen, 2019 ).…”