[not verified in body] Regarding SoA for both motor movements and thoughts, further distinctions may be found in both first-order (immediate, pre-reflective) experience[3] and higher-order (reflective or introspective) consciousness.
[5] The sense of agency plays a pivotal role in cognitive development, including the first stage of self-awareness (or pre-theoretical experience of one's own mentality), which scaffolds theory of mind capacities.
[6][page needed] Indeed, the ability to recognize oneself as the agent of a behavior is the way the self builds as an entity independent from the external world.
An implicit measure of agency relies on intentional binding an effect where the perceived time between related events is decreased.
These experiments have consistently documented the role of the posterior parietal cortex as a critical link within the simulation network for self-recognition.
[11][non-primary source needed][non-primary source needed] Accumulating evidence from functional neuroimaging studies, as well as lesion studies in neurological patients indicates that the right inferior parietal cortex, at the junction with the posterior temporal cortex (TPJ, temporoparietal junction), plays a critical role in the distinction between self-produced actions and actions perceived in others.
[15] There is evidence that reciprocal imitation plays a constitutive role in the early development of an implicit sense of self as a social agent.
Investigation of the sense of agency is important to explain positive symptoms of schizophrenia, like thought insertion and delusions of control.