Signaling the agency of an erroneous outcome via synchronization of spikes in the cerebellum

Abstract

AbstractClaiming agency is a prerequisite for taking responsibility: the brain must differentiate between the sensory events that are the erroneous consequences of our actions, and thus may be remedied if we change our behavior, and the many other events in our environment that consume our attention, but for which we have no means of influence. In the cerebellum, the firing rates of complex spikes of Purkinje cells signal that a sensory or a motor event has taken place, but do not specify if that event was the consequence of the animal’s action. Instead, to claim agency of a sensory outcome, the complex spikes synchronize within the population of Purkinje cells that guided that action. As a result, in the cerebellum the erroneous sensory consequences of movements are identified not via modulation of complex spike firing rates, but via synchronization of spikes.