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Franchak JM, Adolph KE. An update of the development of motor behavior. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2024; 15:e1682. [PMID: 38831670 PMCID: PMC11534565 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1682] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2023] [Revised: 03/31/2024] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 06/05/2024]
Abstract
This primer describes research on the development of motor behavior. We focus on infancy when basic action systems are acquired-posture, locomotion, manual actions, and facial actions-and we adopt a developmental systems perspective to understand the causes and consequences of developmental change. Experience facilitates improvements in motor behavior and infants accumulate immense amounts of varied everyday experience with all the basic action systems. At every point in development, perception guides behavior by providing feedback about the results of just prior movements and information about what to do next. Across development, new motor behaviors provide new inputs for perception. Thus, motor development opens up new opportunities for acquiring knowledge and acting on the world, instigating cascades of developmental changes in perceptual, cognitive, and social domains. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Cognitive Development Psychology > Motor Skill and Performance Neuroscience > Development.
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Affiliation(s)
- John M Franchak
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, California, USA
| | - Karen E Adolph
- Department of Psychology, Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, USA
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2
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Maia MG, Soker-Elimaliah S, Jancart K, Harbourne RT, Berger SE. Focused attention as a new sitter: How do infants balance it all? Infant Behav Dev 2024; 74:101926. [PMID: 38306726 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2024.101926] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2023] [Revised: 12/13/2023] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 02/04/2024]
Abstract
This study investigated the impact of postural control on infants' Focused Attention (FA). Study 1 examined whether and how sitting independently versus with support impacted 6- to 8-month-old infants' ability to focus attention during object exploration. FA measures did not depend on support condition. However, sitting experience was significantly negatively correlated with FA measures in the supported condition, suggesting that infants with more sitting experience performed fewer exploratory movements, possibly due to faster information processing ability compared to infants with less sitting experience. These unexpected findings prompted an exploration of more subtle looking behaviors during FA in Study 2-a case study of three infants who wore a head-mounted eye-tracker during an FA task. The ability to rapidly shift visual attention was key to gathering environmental information useful for problem solving-an interpretation that is supported by prior findings of the relationship between fast looks and faster information processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michele Gonçalves Maia
- Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, USA.
| | - Sapir Soker-Elimaliah
- Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California, CA, USA
| | - Karl Jancart
- John G. Rangos School of Health Sciences, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Regina T Harbourne
- John G. Rangos School of Health Sciences, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Sarah E Berger
- Department of Psychology, College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USA
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3
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Pham HM, Leung EJ, King JM, O'Brien KM, Ryu JH, Claxton LJ. Controlling posture to see the world: The integration of visual task demands and postural sway in sitting and standing infants. J Exp Child Psychol 2024; 238:105804. [PMID: 37913679 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105804] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2023] [Accepted: 10/09/2023] [Indexed: 11/03/2023]
Abstract
Our ability to integrate posture with visually demanding tasks is a critical aspect of motor behavior flexibility. When looking at a small object, excessive body movements impair an individual's ability to visually attend to the object. To overcome this problem, we adjust our postural sway to successfully focus on the object. The goal of the current study was to assess whether infants also adjust postural sway when engaged in a challenging visual task. The participants, 19 independently sitting infants (Sitters) and 21 newly independently standing infants (Standers), sat or stood on a force plate while viewing differently sized images displayed on a monitor (smaller images: 8 × 6.5 cm or 3 × 3 cm; larger images: 13 × 16 cm or 13 × 13 cm). Regardless of image size, Standers were less stable than Sitters with larger sway areas and faster sway velocities. Both Sitters and Standers adjusted sway area but not sway velocity, based on image size. Sitters and Standers differed in how they controlled sway dynamics. Standers but not Sitters altered sway dynamics based on image size. Overall, infants used posture-specific adaptive control strategies to make fine-grained adjustments based on image size. The development of the ability to integrate posture with a visually demanding task further emphasizes the capability of advanced complex motor behaviors during infancy, enabling infants to flexibly attend to important aspects of their environment at different postural positions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanh M Pham
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Elise J Leung
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Jennifer M King
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Kathleen M O'Brien
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Joong Hyun Ryu
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Laura J Claxton
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
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Abstract
This study demonstrates evidence for a foundational process underlying active vision in older infants during object play. Using head-mounted eye-tracking and motion capture, looks to an object are shown to be tightly linked to and synchronous with a stilled head, regardless of the duration of gaze, for infants 12 to 24 months of age. Despite being a developmental period of rapid and marked changes in motor abilities, the dynamic coordination of head stabilization and sustained gaze to a visual target is developmentally invariant during the examined age range. The findings indicate that looking with an aligned head and eyes is a fundamental property of human vision and highlights the importance of studying looking behavior in freely moving perceivers in everyday contexts, opening new questions about the role of body movement in both typical and atypical development of visual attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy I Borjon
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.,
| | - Drew H Abney
- Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.,
| | - Chen Yu
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.,Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA.,
| | - Linda B Smith
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.,School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, East Anglia, UK.,
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Solopova IA, Zhvansky DS, Dolinskaya IY, Keshishian ES, Selionov VA, Sylos-Labini F, Lacquaniti F, Ivanenko Y. Muscle Responses to Passive Joint Movements in Infants During the First Year of Life. Front Physiol 2019; 10:1158. [PMID: 31607940 PMCID: PMC6769424 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2019.01158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2019] [Accepted: 08/28/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Muscle tone represents one of the important concepts for characterizing changes in the state of the developing nervous system. It can be manifested in the level of activity of flexors and extensors and in muscle reactions to its passive stretching (StR) or shortening (ShR). Here we investigated such reactions in a cohort of healthy infants aged from 2 weeks to 12 months. We examined the presence and the characteristics of StR and ShR during slow passive cyclic flexion/extension movements (T~3 s) in the hip, knee, ankle, and elbow joints while awake infants were in the supine position. The results showed that most infants demonstrated prominent ShRs in response to passive joint rotations, although the StR was observed more frequently, suggesting that the ShR is an important component of adaptive motor behavior already at an early developmental stage. Interestingly, the occurrence of both StR and ShR in most muscles significantly decreased throughout the first year of life. Passive cyclic flexion/extension movements could also evoke rhythmic muscle responses in other joints or in the contralateral limb, however, such responses were predominantly observed in younger infants (<6 months). A noticeable manifestation of muscle reactions at an early developmental stage, along with spontaneous motor activity in this period of life, may reflect the processes underlying a formation of appropriate muscle tone and the self-organization of neural circuits. A substantial reduction of ipsilateral and contralateral muscle responses to passive movements with age is consistent with the idea of a functional reorganization of the motor circuitry during early development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irina A Solopova
- Laboratory of Neurobiology of Motor Control, Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Moscow, Russia
| | - Dmitry S Zhvansky
- Laboratory of Neurobiology of Motor Control, Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Moscow, Russia
| | - Irina Y Dolinskaya
- Laboratory of Neurobiology of Motor Control, Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Moscow, Russia
| | - Elena S Keshishian
- Moscow Research Institute of Clinical Pediatrics of Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia
| | - Victor A Selionov
- Laboratory of Neurobiology of Motor Control, Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Moscow, Russia
| | - Francesca Sylos-Labini
- Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.,Department of Systems Medicine and Center of Space Biomedicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Francesco Lacquaniti
- Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.,Department of Systems Medicine and Center of Space Biomedicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Yury Ivanenko
- Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
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Arnold AJ, Liddy JJ, Harris RC, Claxton LJ. Task-specific adaptations of postural sway in sitting infants. Dev Psychobiol 2019; 62:99-106. [PMID: 31489615 DOI: 10.1002/dev.21910] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2019] [Revised: 07/01/2019] [Accepted: 07/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
When engaging in manual or visual tasks while sitting, infants modify their postural sway based on concurrent task demands. It remains unclear whether these modulations are sensitive to differences in concurrent task demands (holding a toy vs. looking at a toy being held by someone else), and whether the properties of the support surface impact these adaptations. We investigated infants' ability to modify postural sway when holding a toy or visually attending to a toy someone else was holding while sitting on different support surfaces. Twenty-six independently sitting infants sat on solid and compliant surfaces placed on a force plate while looking at or holding a toy. Measures of postural sway were calculated from the center of pressure data. Visually attending to a toy was associated with less sway and lower sway velocity than when holding a toy. Surprisingly, surface compliance did not affect sway and there were no interaction effects. Whereas sway modulations may facilitate infants' performance on both manual and visual concurrent tasks, the visual task placed more constraints on the postural system leading to greater adaptations in postural sway. These findings provide insights into how infants are allocating attention and coordinating perceptual-motor information in developing sitting skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda J Arnold
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Joshua J Liddy
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Rachel C Harris
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Laura J Claxton
- Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
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Yuan L, Xu TL, Yu C, Smith LB. Sustained visual attention is more than seeing. J Exp Child Psychol 2018; 179:324-336. [PMID: 30579246 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.11.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2017] [Revised: 11/23/2018] [Accepted: 11/25/2018] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Sustained visual attention is a well-studied cognitive capacity that is relevant to many developmental outcomes. The development of visual attention is often construed as an increased capacity to exert top-down internal control. We demonstrate that sustained visual attention, measured in terms of momentary eye gaze, emerges from and is tightly tied to sensory-motor coordination. Specifically, we examined whether and how changes in manual behavior alter toddlers' eye gaze during toy play. We manipulated manual behavior by giving one group of children heavy toys that were hard to pick up and giving another group of children perceptually identical toys that were lighter and easy to pick up and hold. We found a tight temporal coupling of visual attention with the duration of manual activities on the objects, a relation that cannot be explained by interest alone. Toddlers in the heavy-object condition looked at objects as much as toddlers in the light-object condition but did so through many brief glances, whereas looks to the same objects were longer and sustained in the light-object condition. We explain the results based on the mechanism of hand-eye coordination and discuss its implications for the development of visual attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Yuan
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
| | - Tian Linger Xu
- Department of Computer Science and Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
| | - Chen Yu
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA; Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
| | - Linda B Smith
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA; Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA; School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk, UK
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