Neural correlates of the sense of agency in free and coerced moral decision-making among civilians and military personnel

The sense of agency (SoA), the feeling of being the author for one’s actions and their outcomes, is a critical factor in decision-making, particularly in moral contexts. While prior research has explored its neural correlates, most studies have focused on neutral tasks and convenience samples, overlooking the impact of moral decision-making. In addition, previous studies mostly focused on classic convenience samples, ignoring that some social environments may influence how authorship in moral decision-making is processed, such as the military. This study investigated the neural correlates of SoA in civilians and military personnel during moral decision-making, examining free and coerced choices in both agent and commander roles. Using an fMRI paradigm where participants could either freely choose or follow orders to inflict a mild shock on a victim, we assessed SoA through temporal binding (TB)—a temporal distortion that occurs when individuals make voluntary compared to less voluntary decisions. Our findings suggested that SoA is reduced when following orders compared to acting freely in both the agent role and the commander role. Several brain regions correlated with TB, notably the occipital lobe, the superior frontal gyrus, the middle frontal gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus, the precuneus, and the lateral occipital cortex. Importantly, no differences emerged between military and civilians at corrected thresholds, suggesting that the daily environment has only a small influence on the neural basis involved in moral decision-making, opening the path to a greater generalizability of the findings.