The sense of agency in perception, behaviour and human–machine interactions

The sense of agency refers to the subjective feeling of controlling one's own actions, and through them, external events. The sense of agency is a byproduct of human movements and also greatly shapes perception and behaviour. Furthermore, research on human–machine interaction has highlighted the importance of the sense of agency in joint control between humans and automated systems. In this Review, we first provide an overview of how the sense of agency influences human perception and how the perceptual effects of the sense of agency are used to measure this subjective feeling. Second, we review how the sense of agency modulates behaviour, including action selection, goal-directed actions, and social cognition. Third, we introduce theoretical and neural accounts of how the sense of agency arises. Finally, we explain how the sense of agency applies to human–machine interactions, an area that is rapidly developing and increasingly linked to daily life. The sense of agency refers to the feeling of controlling one's own actions and associated external events. In this Review, Wen and Imamizu describe how the sense of agency shapes human perception and behaviour and summarize how the sense of agency is altered in human–machine interactions.