Abstract：
Freedom of choice enhances our sense of agency. During goal-directed behavior, the freedom to choose between different response options increases the neural processing of positive and negative feedback, indicating enhanced outcome monitoring under conditions of high agency experience. However, it is unclear whether this enhancement is predominantly driven by an increased salience of self- compared to externally determined action outcomes or whether differences in the perceived instrumental value of outcomes contribute to outcome monitoring in goal-directed tasks. To test this, we recorded electroencephalography while participants performed a reinforcement learning task involving free choices, action-relevant forced choices, and action-irrelevant forced choices. We observed larger midfrontal theta power and N100 amplitudes for feedback following free choices compared with action-relevant and action-irrelevant forced choices. In addition, a Reward Positivity was only present for free but not forced choice outcomes. Crucially, our results indicate that enhanced outcome processing is not driven by the relevance of outcomes for future actions but rather stems from the association of outcomes with recent self-determined choice. Our findings highlight the pivotal role of self-determination in tracking the consequences of our actions and contribute to an understanding of the cognitive processes underlying the choice-induced facilitation in outcome monitoring.
摘要：
选择的自由增强了我们的代理意识。在目标导向行为期间，在不同的反应选项之间进行选择的自由增加了正反馈和负反馈的神经处理，表明在高机构经验的条件下加强了结果监测。然而,目前尚不清楚这种增强是否主要是由自我相对于外部确定的行动结果的显著性增加所驱动,或者在目标导向任务中,感知的结果工具价值的差异是否有助于结果监测.为了测试这个，我们记录了脑电图，而参与者执行了涉及自由选择的强化学习任务，与行动相关的强迫选择，和行动无关的强迫选择。与行动相关和行动无关的强迫选择相比，我们观察到自由选择后反馈的中额θ功率和N100幅度更大。此外,奖励积极性仅是免费的，而不是强迫选择的结果。至关重要的是，我们的结果表明,增强的结局处理不是由结局与未来行动的相关性驱动的,而是源于结局与近期自主选择的关联.我们的发现强调了自决在跟踪我们行为的后果中的关键作用，并有助于理解结果监测中选择引起的促进作用的认知过程。
