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The sense of agency (SoA) is central to human experience. The comparator model, contrasting sensory prediction and action feedback, is influential but limited in explaining SoA. We investigated mechanisms beyond the comparator model, focusing on the processing of unpredictable stimuli, perimotor components of SoA, and their relation to schizotypy. ERPs were recorded from 18 healthy participants engaged in button-pressing tasks while perceiving tones with varying causal relationships with their actions. We investigated the processing of non-causally related tones, contrasted this to causally related tones, and examined perimotor correlates of subjective expectancy and experience of agency. We confirmed N100 attenuation for self-generated stimuli but found similar effects for expectancy-dependent processing of random tones. SoA also correlated with perimotor ERP components, modulated by schizotypy. Thus, neural processes preceding actions contribute to the formation of SoA and are associated with schizotypy. Unpredictable events also undergo sensory attenuation, implying additional mechanisms contributing to SoA., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

The neural underpinnings of selfhood encompass pre-reflective and reflective self-experience. The former refers to a basic, immediate experience of being a self, while the latter involves cognition and introspection. Although neural correlates of reflective self-experience have been studied, the pre-reflective remains underinvestigated. This research aims to bridge this gap by comparatively investigating ERP correlates of reading first- vs. third-person pronouns - approximating pre-reflective self-experience - and self- vs. other-related adjectives - approximating reflective self-experience - in 30 healthy participants. We found differential neural engagement between pre-reflective and reflective self-experience at 254-310 ms post-stimulus onset. Source estimation suggested that our sensor-level results could be plausibly explained by the involvement of cortical midline structures and default mode network in the general sense of self but selective recruitment of anterior cingulate and top-down dorsal attention network in the pre-reflective self. These findings offer a deeper understanding of the experiential self, especially pre-reflective, providing a foundation for investigating self-disorders., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)