Senna Irene, Addabbo Margaret, Bolognini Nadia, Longhi Elena, Macchi Cassia Viola, Turati Chiara
Cognitive Neuroscience Department and Cognitive Interaction Technology-Center of Excellence, Bielefeld University.
Department of Psychology & NeuroMi, Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milan-Bicocca.
Infancy. 2017 May;22(3):389-402. doi: 10.1111/infa.12163. Epub 2016 Sep 6.
The development of the ability to recognize the whole human body shape has long been investigated in infants, while less is known about their ability to recognize the shape of single body parts, and in particular their biomechanical constraints. This study aimed to explore whether 9- and 12-month-old infants have knowledge of a hand-grasping movement (i.e., pincer grip), being able to recognize violations of the hand's anatomical constraints during the observation of that movement. Using a preferential looking paradigm, we showed that 12-month-olds discriminate between biomechanically possible and impossible pincer grips, preferring the former over the latter (Experiment 1). This capacity begins to emerge by 9 months of age, modulated by infants' own sensorimotor experience with pincer grip (Experiment 2). Our findings indicate that the ability to visually discriminate between pincer grasps differing in their biomechanical properties develops between 9 and 12 months of age, and that experience with self-produced hand movements might help infants in building a representation of the hand that encompasses knowledge of the physical constraints of this body part.
长期以来，人们一直在研究婴儿识别整个人体形状的能力，而对于他们识别单个身体部位形状的能力，尤其是其生物力学限制，了解较少。本研究旨在探讨9个月和12个月大的婴儿是否了解手部抓握动作（即捏握），并能够在观察该动作时识别出手部解剖学限制的违反情况。使用优先注视范式，我们发现12个月大的婴儿能够区分生物力学上可能和不可能的捏握动作，更喜欢前者而非后者（实验1）。这种能力在9个月大时开始出现，并受到婴儿自身捏握动作的感觉运动经验的调节（实验2）。我们的研究结果表明，在9至12个月大之间，婴儿发展出了视觉上区分生物力学特性不同的捏握动作的能力，并且自我产生的手部动作经验可能有助于婴儿构建一个包含该身体部位物理限制知识的手部表征。
