Pre-movement sensorimotor oscillations shape the sense of agency by gating cortical connectivity

Abstract Our sense of agency, the subjective experience of controlling our actions, is a crucial component of self-awareness and motor control. It is thought to originate from the comparison between intentions and actions across broad cortical network. However, the underlying neural mechanisms are still unknown. We hypothesized that oscillations in the theta-alpha range, thought to orchestrate long-range neural connectivity, may mediate sensorimotor comparisons. To test this, we manipulated the relation between intentions and actions in a tetraplegic user of a brain machine interface (BMI), decoding primary motor cortex (M1) activity to restore hand functionality. We found that the pre-movement phase of low-alpha oscillations in M1 predicted the participant’s agency judgements. Using EEG-BMI in healthy participants, we linked M1 and supplementary motor area (SMA) pre-movement alpha oscillations to agency ratings, and to changes in their functional connectivity with sensory areas. These findings argue for phase-driven gating as a key mechanism for sensorimotor integration and agency.