Intentional Binding Is Unrelated to Action Intention

The present study examined the role of voluntary motor commands in the subjective temporal attraction between an action and its sensory consequence termed as intentional binding. Participants either pressed a key voluntarily or involuntarily while seeing a rotating clock hand. The key press was followed by a short beep tone in some blocks of trials. Then, the position of the clock hand at action or tone occurrence was judged. Trials in which key presses and tones occurred separately provided baseline measures. A direct comparison of baseline uncorrected estimates between both action conditions indicated less binding for involuntary than for voluntary movements as reported by previous studies. However, this effect disappeared after a baseline correction and when we controlled for the temporal predictability of critical events. These results cast substantial doubts on a close link between action intention and intentional binding. but instead highlight the role of causal inference and multisensory integration processes.