Four-day-old human neonates look longer at non-biological motions of a single point-of-light.
BACKGROUND
Biological motions, that is, the movements of humans and other vertebrates, are characterized by dynamic regularities that reflect the structure and the control schemes of the musculo-skeletal system. Early studies on the development of the visual perception of biological motion showed that infants after three months of age distinguished between biological and non-biological locomotion.


RESULTS
Using single point-light motions that varied with respect to the "two-third-power law" of motion generation and perception, we observed that four-day-old human neonates looked longer at non-biological motions than at biological motions when these were simultaneously presented in a standard preferential looking paradigm.


CONCLUSIONS
This result can be interpreted within the "violation of expectation" framework and can indicate that neonates' motion perception - like adults'-is attuned to biological kinematics.
Méary
David
D
Psychology and NeuroCognition Laboratory, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), UMR 5105, University Pierre Mendès France, Grenoble, France.
Kitromilides
Elenitsa
E
Mazens
Karine
K
Graff
Christian
C
Gentaz
Edouard
E
D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008027:Light; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*