Time, agency, and sensory feedback delays during action

- Humans adapt to sensory feedback delays in sensorimotor control and time perception.
- Perceived timing between action and sensation is tightly linked to perceived agency.
- The processing of sensorimotor timing information is asymmetric around simultaneity.
- Whether sensory delays can be identified as delays depends on motor behavior.
- Misidentified delays lead to compensatory behavior that is not temporal in nature.

Until recently the plasticity of sensorimotor delay compensation mechanisms has received little scientific attention. In this paper, we review the work that is now taking place on this interesting topic. Imagine playing a computer game where the cursor lags behind the control movements. Can we behaviourally compensate for such delays with training? Do they eventually disappear from awareness? Recent results demonstrate that such temporal plasticity does indeed exist. It is constrained by the volition of participants' movements (agency), which introduces an asymmetry in timing: actions always precede their sensory consequences. As a result, the processing of sensory signals differs depending on whether they precede or follow an action. Additionally, the motor strategy used to compensate for the effects of sensory delays influences whether feedback delays are detected and hence whether temporal recalibration occurs.