Sense of agency refers to the subjective experience that we are in control of our actions, including movements and speech.
A new study suggests that recognizing our voice from other voices is an important part of our feeling of generating speech and our sense of agency over speech.
Participants in the study were less likely to think they were responsible for producing the speech if they heard a distorted version of their voice instead of their actual voice after vocalizing. Disturbances in the sense of control over speech are associated with auditory hallucinations, and these results could help better understand the basis of such hallucinations.
A recent study published in the journal Psychological Scienceshows that an individual’s sense of control over their speech is closely associated with recognizing their voice.
The study’s author Dr. Hiroshi Imamizu, a professor at the University of Tokyo, told Medical News Today: “Our results show that the sense of self-agency over speech is enhanced by hearing one’s own voice, rather than someone else’s, as an outcome of speech. We provide empirical evidence that people are aware of one’s selfhood through daily actions. This research contributes to the understanding of aberrant experiences in auditory hallucinations.” Affordable therapy delivered digitally – Try BetterHelp
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Sense of agency over speech We tend to perceive ourselves as being in charge when performing voluntary actions. Sense of agencyTrusted Source refers to this subjective feeling of causing and exerting control over one’s actions. Contrary to expectation, our sense of agency does not always reflect objective reality. For instance, a study conducted in the 1960s found that players participating in a game of craps would often throw the dice more forcefully when they wanted a larger number and with less force when a lower number was desired.
Beyond such instances of a disconnect between objective reality and a sense of agency in daily life, researchers think that deficits in the sense of controlTrusted Source over speech may underlie auditory hallucinations. Individuals with auditory hallucinations may be unable to distinguish their voices from others’.
