EXPRESS: Atypical Implicit and Explicit Sense of Agency in Autism: a complete characterization using the Cue integration approach.

Abstract

There exist indications that sense of agency (SoA), the experience of being the cause of one's own actions and actions' outcomes, is altered in autism. However, no studies in autism have simultaneously investigated the integration mechanisms underpinning both implicit and explicit SoA, the two levels of agency proposed by the innovative Cue integration approach. Our study establishes a first complete characterization of SoA functioning in autism, by comparing age- and IQ-matched samples of autistic versus neurotypical adults. Intentional binding and judgments of agency were used to assess implicit and explicit SoA over pinching movements with visual outcomes. Sensorimotor and contextual cues were manipulated using feedback alteration and induced belief about the cause of actions' outcome. Implicit SoA was altered in autism, as showed by an overall abolished intentional binding effect and greater inter-individual heterogeneity. At the explicit level, we observed an under-reliance on retrospective sensorimotor cues. The implicit-explicit dynamic was also altered in comparison to neurotypical individuals. Our results show that both implicit and explicit levels of SoA, as well as the dynamic between the two levels, present atypicalities in autism.