Abstract
Infant development of reaching to tactile targets on the skin has been studied little, despite its daily use during adaptive behaviors such as removing foreign stimuli or scratching an itch. We longitudinally examined the development of infant reaching strategies (from just under 2 to 11 months) approximately every other week with a vibrotactile stimulus applied to eight different locations on the face (left/right/center temple, left/right ear, left/right mouth corners, and chin). Successful reaching for the stimulus uses tactile input and proprioception to localize the target and move the hand to it. We studied the developmental progression of reaching and grasping strategies. As infants became older the likelihood of using the hand to reach to the target – versus touching the target with another body part or surface such as the upper arm or chair – increased. For trials where infants reached to the target with the hand, infants also refined their hand postures with age. As infants became older, they made fewer contacts with a closed fist or the dorsal part of the hand and more touches/grasps with the fingers or palm. Results suggest that during the first year infants become able to act more precisely on tactile targets on the face.
Highlights
The ability to act on one’s own body by reaching to specific locations on the body is critical for many tasks of daily living
Preliminary analyses found no significant effect of sex or laterality on reaching success, so these variables were excluded from further analyses
The first generalized estimating equations (GEEs) analysis examined the effects of age and target location and an Age x Target Location interaction on hand versus non-hand contact with the target
Summary
The ability to act on one’s own body by reaching to specific locations on the body is critical for many tasks of daily living. Most individuals reach to body locations automatically and with apparent ease, this act involves a coordinated set of perceptual and motor skills. Reaching to a stimulus on the body uses perceptual inputs including touch, proprioception, and sometimes vision to localize a stimulus and to guide a motor action to that location (Longo et al, 2010; Heed et al, 2015). Little research has addressed reaching to targets on the body or how this ability develops. We longitudinally examine the motor strategies that infants use across the first year as they reach to and grasp a vibrating target placed at different locations on the face
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