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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 11, 2026

Assessing Corticospinal Excitability During Goal-Directed Reaching Behavior
05:05

Assessing Corticospinal Excitability During Goal-Directed Reaching Behavior

Published on: December 2, 2022

Sit happens: Does sitting development perturb reaching development, or vice versa?

Regina T Harbourne1, Michele A Lobo, Gregory M Karst

  • 1Munroe Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 985450 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198-5450, USA. rharbour@unmc.edu

Infant Behavior & Development
|May 7, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Infants learn to reach and sit simultaneously, using arms for support initially. This dual task development shows a nonlinear progression in reaching skill as posture control evolves.

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental motor control
  • Infant biomechanics
  • Motor learning

Background:

  • Reaching and sitting are key infant motor skills, often studied separately.
  • Infants coordinate arms for sitting soon after learning to reach.
  • The dual role of arms in reaching and sitting support is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how infants use arms for reaching while simultaneously learning to support themselves while sitting.
  • To test the hypothesis that arm use for sitting support temporarily perturbs reaching development, leading to nonlinear skill progression.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study of 11 infants from prop sitting to independent sitting (5-8 months).
  • Utilized behavioral coding, kinematics, and electromyography (EMG) to analyze reaching and posture.
  • Categorized sitting into three stages: arm support, brief unsupported, and independent sitting.

Main Results:

  • Infants linearly increased object contact with hands while decreasing postural arm support.
  • Trunk and pelvis movement showed a U-shaped curve, indicating challenged posture control in the middle sitting stage.
  • Muscle activation strategies evolved from tonic early on to integrated lower extremity and reach-onset control later.

Conclusions:

  • Reaching development influences and is influenced by sitting development in infants.
  • The dual sit-reach behavior is a complex assembly, crucial for flexible environmental interaction.
  • Arm support for sitting is a temporary but significant factor in the nonlinear development of reaching skills.