The switch that turns on the sense of responsibility is located in the brain: it is a nervous circuit between the frontal lobe and the parietal lobe and can be controlled from the outside by changing the awareness of one's actions. The discovery, which will help understand the mechanisms underlying diseases such as schizophrenia and Tourette's syndrome, is published in the journal Science Advances by researchers from the Psychology Department of the University of Milan-Bicocca in collaboration with the Irccs Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi .
The study shows that brain activity aimed at planning actions is central in determining the sense of responsibility: this would strengthen the so-called 'constructive hypothesis', according to which we would compare our predictions with the result of the actions to recognize them as our responsibility.
The researchers discovered this using brain magnetic resonance imaging to monitor the brain activity of 25 volunteers who were asked to turn on a light bulb by pressing a button after receiving a visual signal (active condition) or by letting the experimenter press the their finger on the same button (passive condition).
After the experiment, the participants had to judge the perceived time interval between the action (active or passive) and its consequence: as foreseen by the theoretical models, the subjects who felt responsible for the action and its consequences judged the shortest time interval compared to that perceived in a passive condition. This experience can be altered by going to stimulate the brain from the outside in a non-invasive way.
Thanks to the transcranial magnetic stimulation technique, the researchers managed to interfere with the functioning of the frontal regions causing people to feel responsible also for consequences that are not normally attributable to their actions.