Validation of the Italian Sense of Agency Scale and Its Relevance to Well-Being: An Iterative Bootstrap Approach.

The Sense of Agency (SoA) refers to the subjective experience of controlling one's actions and the external events resulting from those actions. This study aimed to critically evaluate the construct validity, robustness, and clinical utility of the Sense of Agency Scale (SoAS) in an Italian-speaking population, using a data-driven approach to explore potential factor structures. A sample of 992 adults completed the SoAS alongside other validated psychological measures, allowing for a comprehensive analysis of the scale's psychometric properties.

The degenerate coding of psychometric profiles through functional connectivity archetypes.

Introduction: Degeneracy in the brain-behavior code refers to the brain's ability to utilize different neural configurations to support similar functions, reflecting its adaptability and robustness. This study aims to explore degeneracy by investigating the non-linear associations between psychometric profiles and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC).

Methods: The study analyzed RSFC data from 500 subjects to uncover the underlying neural configurations associated with various psychometric outcomes.

The blushing brain: neural substrates of cheek temperature increase in response to self-observation.

Darwin proposed that blushing-the reddening of the face owing to heightened self-awareness-is 'the most human of all expressions'. Yet, relatively little is known about the underlying mechanisms of blushing. Theories diverge on whether it is a rapid, spontaneous emotional response that does not involve reflection upon the self or whether it results from higher-order socio-cognitive processes.

The state-trait sense of self inventory: A psychometric study of self-experience and its relation to psychosis-like manifestations.

The sense of self is a fundamental construct in the study of the mind, yet its psychological nature remains elusive. We introduce a novel 25-item inventory to investigate selfhood both as an enduring trait and a temporary state. We hypothesized two foundational aspects of the self: identity (related to self-referencing and continuity over time) and agency (the perception of controlling own's actions and thoughts).

An integrative perspective on the role of touch in the development of intersubjectivity.

Touch concerns a fundamental component of sociality. In this review, we examine the hypothesis that somatomotor development constitutes a crucial psychophysiological element in the ontogeny of intersubjectivity. An interdisciplinary perspective is provided on how the communication channel of touch contributes to the sense of self and extends to the social self.

Testing the Magnitude of Correlations Across Experimental Conditions.

Correlation coefficients are often compared to investigate data across multiple research fields, as they allow investigators to determine different degrees of correlation to independent variables. Even with adequate sample size, such differences may be minor but still scientifically relevant. To date, although much effort has gone into developing methods for estimating differences across correlation coefficients, adequate tools for variable sample sizes and correlational strengths have yet to be tested.

Brain and behavioral contributions to individual choices in response to affective-cognitive persuasion.

Affective and cognitive information conveyed by persuasive stimuli is evaluated and integrated by individuals according to their behavioral predispositions. However, the neurocognitive structure that supports persuasion based on either affective or cognitive content is poorly understood. Here, we examine the neural and behavioral processes supporting choices based on affective and cognitive persuasion by integrating 4 information processing features: intrinsic brain connectivity, stimulus-evoked brain activity, intrinsic affective-cognitive orientation, and explicit target evaluations.

Appropriately Tuning Stochastic-Psychometric Properties of the Balloon Analog Risk Task.

The Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) allows to experimentally assess individuals' risk-taking profiles in an ecologically sound setting. Many psychological and neuroscientific studies implemented the BART for its simplicity and intuitive nature. However, some issues in the design of the BART are systematically unconsidered in experimental paradigms, which may bias the estimation of individual risk-taking profiles.

Probabilistically Weighted Multilayer Networks disclose the link between default mode network instability and psychosis-like experiences in healthy adults.

The brain is a complex system in which the functional interactions among its subunits vary over time. The trajectories of this dynamic variation contribute to inter-individual behavioral differences and psychopathologic phenotypes. Despite many methodological advancements, the study of dynamic brain networks still relies on biased assumptions in the temporal domain.

Intrinsic Shapes of Empathy: Functional Brain Network Topology Encodes Intersubjective Experience and Awareness Traits.

Trait empathy is an essential personality feature in the intricacy of typical social inclinations of individuals. Empathy is likely supported by multilevel neuronal network functioning, whereas local topological properties determine network integrity. In the present functional MRI study (N = 116), we aimed to trace empathic traits to the intrinsic brain network architecture.

Combining local and global evolutionary trajectories of brain-behaviour relationships through game theory.

The study of the evolution of brain-behaviour relationships concerns understanding the causes and repercussions of cross- and within-species variability. Understanding such variability is a main objective of evolutionary and cognitive neuroscience, and it may help explaining the appearance of psychopathological phenotypes. Although brain evolution is related to the progressive action of selection and adaptation through multiple paths (e.

The Prospective Sense of Agency is Rooted in Local and Global Properties of Intrinsic Functional Brain Networks.

The sense of agency (SoA) refers to a constitutional aspect of the self describing the extent to which individuals feel in control over their actions and consequences thereof. Although the SoA has been associated with mental health and well-being, it is still unknown how interindividual variability in the SoA is embedded in the intrinsic brain organization. We hypothesized that the prospective component of an implicit SoA is associated with brain networks related to SoA and sensorimotor predictions on multiple spatial scales.

The evolving sense of agency: Context recency and quality modulate the interaction between prospective and retrospective processes.

Humans acquire a sense of agency through their interactions with the world and their sensory consequences. Previous studies have highlighted stable agency-related phenomena like intentional binding, which depend on both prospective, context-dependent and retrospective, outcome-dependent processes. In the current study, we investigated the interaction between prospective and retrospective processes underlying the adaptation of an ongoing sense of agency.

I am Me: Brain systems integrate and segregate to establish a multidimensional sense of self.

Humans experience a sense of self, which is proposed to emerge from the integration of intrinsic and extrinsic self-processing through the propagation of information across brain systems. Using a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm, we tested this hypothesis in a non-clinical sample by modulating the intrinsic and extrinsic self-relatedness of auditory action consequences in terms of identity and agency, respectively. In addition, the relevance of individual traits associated with altered self-experiences (e.

Environmental control and psychosis-relevant traits modulate the prospective sense of agency in non-clinical individuals.

The sense of agency concerns the experience of being the source of one's own actions and their consequences. An altered sense of agency can occur due to task automation and in psychosis. We tested in a non-clinical sample the hypothesis that reducing voluntary task control diminishes intentional binding as an implicit indicator of the sense of agency, possibly interacting with psychosis-relevant personality traits.

Spontaneous Brain Activity Predicts Task-Evoked Activity During Animate Versus Inanimate Touch.

The spontaneous activity of the brain is characterized by an elaborate temporal structure with scale-free properties as indexed by the power law exponent (PLE). We test the hypothesis that spontaneous brain activity modulates task-evoked activity during interactions with animate versus inanimate stimuli. For this purpose, we developed a paradigm requiring participants to actively touch either animate (real hand) or inanimate (mannequin hand) stimuli.

Brain network profiling defines functionally specialized cortical networks.

Neuroimaging research made rapid advances in the study of the functional architecture of the brain during the past decade. Many proposals endorsed the relevance of large-scale brain networks, defined as ensembles of brain regions that exhibit highly correlated signal fluctuations. However, analysis methods need further elaboration to define the functional and anatomical extent of specialized subsystems within classical networks with a high reliability.

Functional connections between activated and deactivated brain regions mediate emotional interference during externally directed cognition.

Recent evidence shows that task-deactivations are functionally relevant for cognitive performance. Indeed, higher cognitive engagement has been associated with higher suppression of activity in task-deactivated brain regions - usually ascribed to the Default Mode Network (DMN). Moreover, a negative correlation between these regions and areas actively engaged by the task is associated with better performance.