title: Development of space perception in relation to the maturation of the motor system in infant rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).
abstract: To act on the environment, organisms must perceive object locations in relation to their body. Several neuroscientific studies provide evidence of neural circuits that selectively represent space within reach (i.e., peripersonal) and space outside of reach (i.e., extrapersonal). However, the developmental emergence of these space representations remains largely unexplored. We investigated the development of space coding in infant macaques and found that they exhibit different motor strategies and hand configurations depending on the objects' size and location. Reaching-grasping improved from 2 to 4 weeks of age, suggesting a broadly defined perceptual body schema at birth, modified by the acquisition and refinement of motor skills through early sensorimotor experience, enabling the development of a mature capacity for coding space.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Via Volturno 39 - 43100 Parma, Italy. Electronic address: valentinasclafani@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sclafani
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Via Volturno 39 - 43100 Parma, Italy; Eunice Kennedy Shiver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, Poolesville, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.affiliation: Eunice Kennedy Shiver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, Poolesville, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Suomi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Via Volturno 39 - 43100 Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Pier Francesco
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Ferrari
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001828:Body Image; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand / Q000254:growth & development; D018737:Hand Strength / Q000502:physiology; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D010550:Personal Space; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Body schema; Motor development; Peripersonal space; Premotor cortex; Space representation