The temporal relationship between reduction of early imitative responses and the development of attention mechanisms.
BACKGROUND
To determine whether early imitative responses fade out following the maturation of attentional mechanisms, the relationship between primitive imitation behaviors and the development of attention was examined in 4-month-old infants. They were divided into high and low imitators, based on an index of imitation. The status of attention was assessed by studying inhibition of return (IOR). Nine-month-old infants were also tested to confirm the hypothesis.


RESULTS
The IOR latency data replicate previous results that infants get faster to produce a covert shift of attention with increasing age. However, those 4-month-olds who showed less imitation had more rapid saccades to the cue before target presentation.


CONCLUSIONS
The cortical control of saccade planning appears to be related to an apparent drop in early imitation. We interpret the results as suggesting a relationship between the status of imitation and the neural development of attention-related eye movement.
Nakagawa
Atsuko
A
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nagoya City University, Yamanohata, Mizuho-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8501, Japan. nakagawa@hum.nagoua-cu.ac.jp
Sukigara
Masune
M
Benga
Oana
O
D000367:Age Factors; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005149:Facial Expression; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D007223:Infant; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors