The human sense of being the author of one's own actions is caused by a mathematical lag between the two sides of the brain.
Agency attribution requires a specific timing difference in processing speeds between the brain's hemispheres. Our fundamental feeling of 'I did this' is not a complex philosophical judgment, but a byproduct of internal timing delays. If the two halves of the brain processed information at the same speed, we might lose the sense of being an independent actor. This minimal predictive framework suggests that consciousness is built on the physical architecture of the brain's wiring. It turns the mystery of the self into a problem of signal timing.
Inter-hemispheric delay asymmetry as a necessary condition for agency attribution: a minimal predictive framework
research_square · rs-9491092
Abstract The ability to attribute sensory consequences to self-generated actions rather than to external causes is a fundamental requirement for adaptive behaviour. Despite extensive theoretical work, the minimal computational condition under which this attribution becomes well-defined remains unresolved. Here we propose that inter-hemispheric delay asymmetry—the difference Δτ between the internal processing delays of two competing predictive systems—is a necessary and sufficient structural cond