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The dynamics of infant visual foraging

Steven S Robertson1, John Guckenheimer, Amy M Masnick

  • 1Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. ssr4@cornell.edu

Developmental Science
|August 24, 2004
PubMed

Insights

Human infants actively seek visual information. A simple model shows that noise and hysteresis in neural activity, not visual processing, may explain infant looking behavior at four weeks old.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental psychology
  • Computational neuroscience
  • Infant visual behavior

Background:

  • Human infants actively seek visual information from birth.
  • Limited understanding of intrinsic dynamics governing infant visual foraging behavior in early postnatal weeks.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To model infant visual foraging behavior using a stochastic dynamical system.
  • To investigate the influence of intrinsic dynamics, specifically noise and hysteresis, on infant looking behavior.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a simple three-parameter stochastic dynamical system.
  • Modeled transitions between looking and looking away behavior.
  • Compared model output to quantitative measures of 4-week-old infant visual behavior.

Main Results:

  • The stochastic dynamical system quantitatively replicated 4-week-old infant visual foraging behavior.
  • Hysteresis in transitions between looking and looking away was crucial for model success.
  • Model performance suggests noise and hysteresis are key factors.

Conclusions:

  • Infant visual foraging in the first few postnatal weeks may be significantly influenced by neural noise and hysteresis.
  • These intrinsic dynamics might play a larger role than post-look visual information processing.
  • A simple model with noise and hysteresis effectively captures early infant visual behavior.

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