Self-Agency and Self-Ownership in Cognitive Mapping

Shahar Arzy; Daniel L Schacter

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2019.04.003

Self-Agency and Self-Ownership in Cognitive Mapping

Trends Cogn Sci. 2019 Jun;23(6):476-487. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.04.003. Epub 2019 May 4.

Authors

Shahar Arzy¹, Daniel L Schacter²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA; Neuropsychiatry Laboratory, Department of Medical Neurobiology, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Department of Neurology, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel. Electronic address: shahar.arzy@ekmd.huji.ac.il.
² Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Abstract

The concepts of agency of one's actions and ownership of one's experience have proved useful in relating body representations to bodily consciousness. Here we apply these concepts to cognitive maps. Agency is defined as 'the sense that I am the one who is generating the experience represented on a cognitive map', while ownership is defined as 'the sense that I am the one who is undergoing an experience, represented on a cognitive map'. The roles of agency and ownership are examined with respect to the transformation between egocentric and allocentric representations and the underlying neurocognitive and computational mechanisms; and within the neuropsychiatric domain, including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other memory-related disorders, in which the senses of agency and ownership may be disrupted.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; agency; memory; modeling; ownership; simulation.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Alzheimer Disease / psychology
Cognition*
Ego
Humans
Models, Psychological
Ownership*
Self Concept*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding