Correlation between pose estimation features regarding movements towards the midline in early infancy

Area of Science:

• Infant motor development
• Biomechanical analysis
• Digital health technologies

Background:

• Spontaneous movement towards the midline (MTM) in infants signifies the onset of anti-gravity ability development.
• Markerless 2D pose estimation offers a quantifiable, accessible alternative to traditional movement assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the correlation between 2D pose estimation features and MTM in infants.
• To establish the utility of markerless pose estimation for assessing early infant motor skills.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 94 infant videos to quantify MTM occurrence percentage and rate.
• Utilizing 2D pose estimation to calculate limb distances and areas from landmark coordinates.
• Evaluating correlations between MTM observations and calculated distance/area metrics in 20 infants (8-16 weeks).

Main Results:

• MTM observations frequently included hand-to-trunk and foot-to-foot movements.
• Weak correlations were found between limb distances to the midline and MTM occurrence.
• Significant differences in lower limb and total body areas were observed between MTM and non-MTM groups (p=0.003 and p=0.001, respectively).

Conclusions:

• 2D pose estimation, using parent-recorded videos, can assist in the early identification of MTM in infants.
• Further research with larger, diverse samples and at-risk populations is needed to validate findings and assess later developmental outcomes.