The normal development of adaptive behavior in humans depends on the integration of visual attention and body movement, yet little is known about the initial state of movement-attention coupling at the beginning of postnatal life. We studied 1- and 3-month-old infants during extended periods of visual exploration and found that spontaneous shifts of gaze are preceded by rapid changes in general body movement. The results reveal a tight link between motor activation and overt attention on a time scale of seconds or less. This link undergoes substantial developmental change in the first few weeks after birth. During that time, phasic motor activation may play a key role in visual exploration by helping to unlock gaze when the environment is unchanging.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AtkinsonJ.HoodB.Wattam-BellJ.BraddickO.
(1992).
Changes in infants' ability to switch visual attention in the first three months of life.
Perception,
21, 643–653.
2.
BacherL.F.RobertsonS.S. (in press).
Stability of coupled fluctuations in movement and visual attention in infants.
Developmental Psychobiology.
3.
BacherL.F.RobertsonS.S.GurmankinA.D.KunkelL.WeidhornE.R.
(2000, July).
Arm movements with respect to a nearby object during the transition to reaching. Paper presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Brighton, England.
4.
BallardD.H.HayhoeM.M.PookP.K.RaoR.P.N.
(1997).
Deictic codes for the embodiment of cognition.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences,
20, 723–767.
5.
BergerA.PosnerM.I.
(2000).
Pathologies of brain attentional networks.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews,
24(1), 3–5.
6.
BertenthalB.I.RoseJ.L.BaiD.L.
(1997).
Perception-action coupling in the development of visual control of posture.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance,
23, 1631–1643.
7.
BeurrierC.CongarP.BioulacB.HammondC.
(1999).
Subthalamic nucleus neurons switch from single-spike activity to burst-firing mode.
Journal of Neuroscience,
19, 599–609.
8.
BushnellE.W.BoudreauJ.P.
(1993).
Motor development and the mind: The potential role of motor abilities as a determinant of aspects of perceptual development.
Child Development,
64, 1005–1021.
9.
ChielH.J.BeerR.D.
(1997).
The brain has a body: Adaptive behavior emerges from interactions of nervous system, body and environment.
Trends in Neurosciences,
20, 553–557.
10.
ClarkA.
(1999).
An embodied cognitive science?Trends in Cognitive Sciences,
3, 345–351.
11.
CornerM.A.
(1977).
Sleep and the beginnings of behavior in the animal kingdom—Studies of ultradian motility cycles in early life.
Progress in Neurobiology,
8, 279–295.
12.
HoodB.M.
(1995).
Shifts of visual attention in the human infant: A neuroscientific approach. In
Rovee-CollierC.LipsittL.P. (Eds.),
Advances in infancy research (Vol.
9, pp. 163–216).
Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
13.
JohnsonM.H.
(1990).
Cortical maturation and the development of visual attention in early infancy.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,
2, 81–95.
14.
JohnsonM.H.
(1995).
The development of visual attention: A cognitive neuroscience perspective. In
GazzanigaM.S. (Ed.),
The cognitive neurosciences (pp. 735–747).
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
15.
JohnsonM.H.PosnerM.I.RothbartM.K.
(1991).
Components of visual orienting in early infancy: Contingency learning, anticipatory looking, and disengaging.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,
3, 335–344.
16.
MercuriE.AtkinsonJ.BraddickO.AnkerS.CowanF.RutherfordM.PennockJ.DubowitzL.
(1997).
Basal ganglia damage and impaired visual function in the newborn infant.
Archives of Disease in Childhood,
77(2), F111–F114.
17.
PlenzD.KitalS.T.
(1999).
A basal ganglia pacemaker formed by the subthalamic nucleus and external globus pallidus.
Nature,
400, 677–682.
18.
PosnerM.I.PetersenS.E.
(1990).
The attention system of the human brain.
Annual Review of Neuroscience,
13, 25–42.
19.
RichardsJ.E. (Ed.).
(1998).
Cognitive neuroscience of attention: A developmental perspective.
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
20.
RobertsonS.S.
(1993).
Oscillation and complexity in early infant behavior.
Child Development,
64, 1022–1035.
21.
RobertsonS.S.DierkerL.J.SorokinY.RosenM.G.
(1982).
Human fetal movement: Spontaneous oscillations near one cycle per minute.
Science,
218, 1327–1330.
22.
SmithL.B.ThelenE.TitzerR.McLinD.
(1999).
Knowing in the context of acting: The task dynamics of the A-not-B error.
Psychological Review,
106, 235–260.
23.
SwansonJ.CastellanosF.X.MuriasM.LaHosteG.KennedyJ.
(1998).
Cognitive neuroscience of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and hyperkinetic disorder.
Current Opinion in Neurobiology,
8, 263–271.
24.
TeicherM.H.AndersonC.M.PolcariA.GlodC.A.MaasL.C.RenshawP.F.
(2000).
Functional deficits in basal ganglia of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder shown with functional magnetic resonance imaging relaxometry.
Nature Medicine,
6, 470–473.
25.
ThelenE.SchönerG.ScheierC.SmithL.B. (in press).
The dynamics of embodiment: A field theory of infant perseverative reaching.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
26.
Van GelderT.
(1998).
The dynamical hypothesis in cognitive science.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences,
21, 615–665.
27.
von HofstenC.
(1984).
Developmental changes in the organization of prereaching movements.
Developmental Psychology,
20, 378–388.
