Already inside the womb, fetuses frequently bring their hands to the mouth, anticipating hand-to-mouth contact by opening the mouth. Here, we explored whether 2-day-old newborns discriminate between hand actions directed towards different targets of the face—that is, a thumb that reaches the mouth and a thumb that reaches the chin. Newborns looked longer towards the thumb-to-mouth compared to the thumb-to-chin action only in the presence, and not absence, of anticipatory mouth opening movements, preceding the thumb arrival. Overall, our results show that newborns are sensitive to hand-to-face coordinated actions, being capable to discriminate between body-related actions directed towards different targets of the face, but only when a salient visual cue that anticipates the target of the action is present. The role of newborns’ sensorimotor experience with hand-to-mouth gestures in driving this capacity is discussed.

Addabbo, M., Roberti, E., Colombo, L., Picciolini, O., Turati, C. (2022). Newborns’ early attuning to hand-to-mouth coordinated actions. DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, 25(2 (March 2022)) [10.1111/desc.13162].

Newborns’ early attuning to hand-to-mouth coordinated actions

Addabbo, Margaret
;
Roberti, Elisa;Turati, Chiara
2022

Abstract

Already inside the womb, fetuses frequently bring their hands to the mouth, anticipating hand-to-mouth contact by opening the mouth. Here, we explored whether 2-day-old newborns discriminate between hand actions directed towards different targets of the face—that is, a thumb that reaches the mouth and a thumb that reaches the chin. Newborns looked longer towards the thumb-to-mouth compared to the thumb-to-chin action only in the presence, and not absence, of anticipatory mouth opening movements, preceding the thumb arrival. Overall, our results show that newborns are sensitive to hand-to-face coordinated actions, being capable to discriminate between body-related actions directed towards different targets of the face, but only when a salient visual cue that anticipates the target of the action is present. The role of newborns’ sensorimotor experience with hand-to-mouth gestures in driving this capacity is discussed.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
goal-directed actions; hand-to-mouth coordination; newborns; sensorimotor experience; visual preference;
English
22-lug-2021
2022
25
2 (March 2022)
e13162
open
Addabbo, M., Roberti, E., Colombo, L., Picciolini, O., Turati, C. (2022). Newborns’ early attuning to hand-to-mouth coordinated actions. DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, 25(2 (March 2022)) [10.1111/desc.13162].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/323696
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