Abstract
Recent evidence suggests that interval timing (the judgment of durations lasting from approximately 500 ms. to a few minutes) is closely coupled to the action control system. We used surface electromyography (EMG) and motion capture technology to explore the emergence of this coupling in 4-, 6-, and 8-month-olds. We engaged infants in an active and socially relevant arm-raising task with seven cycles and response period. In one condition, cycles were slow (every 4 s); in another, they were fast (every 2 s). In the slow condition, we found evidence of time-locked sub-threshold EMG activity even in the absence of any observed overt motor responses at all three ages. This study shows that EMGs can be a more sensitive measure of interval timing in early development than overt behavior.
Highlights
Interval timing concerns our ability to judge the length of events taking from a few seconds up to a few minutes (Buhusi and Meck 2005; Grondin 2008; Zakay and Block 1997)
Our hypothesis was that infants will learn to anticipate the hand rising during the first seven training episodes and so will show time-locked movement and associated muscle activity in the subsequent missing beat period
We first grouped the infants by age and by condition, collapsed the data across the four trial blocks for each baby in each timing condition
Summary
Interval timing concerns our ability to judge the length of events taking from a few seconds up to a few minutes (Buhusi and Meck 2005; Grondin 2008; Zakay and Block 1997). Over the last 15 years, substantial evidence using heartrate measures (Colombo and Richman 2002), ERP measures (Brannon et al 2004, 2008), looking time measures (Brannon et al 2007), and eye-tracking measures (Addyman et al 2014) has established that infants as young as 4 months old are sensitive to the unexpected interruption of a temporally regular event on the scale of several seconds. This is a classic developmental view that resonates with both the work of Piaget (e.g., 1952, 1957) and Eleanor Gibson (1969), as well as in more contemporary embodied approaches to perceptual and cognitive development (e.g., Thelen and Smith 1996; Goldfield 1995). Addyman et al (2011; French et al 2014) argue that the ubiquitous repetitive action cycles observed in young
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