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A longitudinal study of prospective control in catching by full-term and preterm infants

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Abstract

Prospective control when catching moving toys was studied longitudinally in full-term and preterm infants between the ages of 22 and 48 weeks. The toy’s distance and time to the catching place and its velocity were explored as possible timing strategies used by infants to start their hand movement. The aim of the study was to find evidence for a shift in timing strategy and whether there were differences between full-term and preterm infants. In addition, it was investigated how infants continuously guided their hands to the toy and whether this guidance was influenced by their use of timing strategy. The toy approached the infants from the side with different constant velocities and constant accelerations. Results showed that there was little difference between full-term and preterm infants’ use of timing strategies. Initially, infants used a distance- or velocity-strategy, possibly causing them to have many unsuccessful catches. After a shift to a time-strategy, infants appeared to increase the number of successful catches and performed longer and more functional tau-couplings between the hand and the toy. One preterm infant did not switch to a time-strategy, and frequently missed the moving toy. The same infant also showed less functional tau-coupling with non-controlled collisions between the hand and the toy. More follow-up research is needed to investigate whether problems with extracting the relevant perceptual information for action could be an early indication of later perceptuo-motor difficulties.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the infants and their parents for their participation, Dr. Farstad and Dr. Johansen for their help recruiting infants, Chris M. Aanondsen and Gry Therese Storsveen for assistance with the testing, and Rune Dahl and Eirik Paulsen for their assistance in the data analysis. We also thank Gert-Jan Pepping for providing us with the tau analysis software and David Lee for many fruitful discussions on tau theory. This research has been financed by EXTRA funds from the Norwegian Foundation for Health and Rehabilitation via the Norwegian Health Association.

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  1. Developmental Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Nanna Sønnichsen Kayed & Audrey L. H. Van der Meer

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  1. Nanna Sønnichsen Kayed
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  2. Audrey L. H. Van der Meer
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Correspondence to Nanna Sønnichsen Kayed.

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Kayed, N.S., Van der Meer, A.L.H. A longitudinal study of prospective control in catching by full-term and preterm infants. Exp Brain Res 194, 245–258 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1692-2

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