Abstract Self- and externally generated sensations differ in sensory responses and motor preparation. However, mechanistic evidence linking the two is scarce. Here, participants made active (self-initiated) or passive (finger moved by electromagnet) movements that triggered a bimodal auditory/visual stimulus. These were followed, in a block-wise manner, by a unimodal auditory/visual comparison stimulus, and participants judged which stimulus was brighter or louder.