Subclinical depression inhibits the sense of agency at the sensorimotor level

The sense of agency is a feeling that one’s actions affect the outer world, which can be implicitly measured by the intentional binding paradigm. Intentional binding is a temporal illusion in which the time interval of one’s voluntary action and the following effect is perceived as contracted. Although the abnormality of the sense of agency is related to various mental states, it is unclear how depression affects the sense of agency at the sensorimotor level in general. Twenty-four nonclinical participants judged the timing of a keypress and a tone, with or without action-effect association, and reported their depressive symptoms. Replicating the previous studies, in this study, the time prediction of the keypress shifted toward the tone and that of the tone shifted toward the keypress when a tone followed a voluntary keypress. It was found that individuals with more severe depressive symptoms had smaller intentional binding, indicating a decreased sense of agency at the sensorimotor level in subclinical depression. This finding could aid in further understanding the experience of depression at a fundamental level and treating such patients.