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Perception of visual-tactile colocation in the first year of life

Livia Freier1, Luke Mason1, Andrew J Bremner1

  • 1Sensorimotor Development Research Unit, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London.

Developmental Psychology
|November 29, 2016
PubMed

Insights

Infants as young as 6 months can determine if touch and sight align spatially. This early ability to integrate visual and tactile information is key for body awareness.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Sensory Perception
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

  • Integrating sensory information is vital for developing a sense of self and understanding external space.
  • The ability to link tactile and visual stimuli in a shared spatial frame is fundamental for body representation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate young infants' capacity to perceive the spatial congruence of tactile and visual stimuli on their hands.
  • To determine the earliest age at which infants can integrate visual and tactile information within a common spatial reference frame.

Main Methods:

  • Examined visual preferences of 6-month-old and 10-month-old infants.
  • Presented spatially congruent and incongruent visual-tactile stimuli on the infants' hands.
  • Measured infants' looking duration to assess their perception of colocation.

Main Results:

  • Both 6-month-old and 10-month-old infants showed a longer looking duration towards incongruent visual-tactile displays.
  • This indicates infants can detect when visual and tactile events are not spatially aligned.

Conclusions:

  • Infants possess the ability to perceive visual and tactile stimuli within a common spatial frame of reference by 6 months of age.
  • This early sensory integration capability is foundational for developing body schema and spatial awareness.

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