Poster #160 - Mapping the body: The role of postnatal self-touch exploration

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Perceptual, Sensory, Motor

Integrative Statement

Having a sense of our body is fundamental to situate ourselves in space, in relation to others and objects, and for action formation. The ontogeny of this ability begins prenatally and during early postnatal development via spontaneous self-touch experiences. The flexions and extensions of the arms in conjunction with the body areas self-touched contribute to create a somatosensory representation of the body and helps the mapping of actions in space.
To begin understanding how early body mapping forms, we investigated the spontaneous self-touch activities of 4 infants observed weekly from 3-weeks-old until they developed head control. Infants were video recorded for five 5-minute conditions while lying in supine. The conditions were baseline, toys on the preferred head turn side, sounding toys on the non-preferred head turn side, mother reading, and an overhead mobile condition. Infants’ hand touches were categorized into 20 different body locations, split bilaterally across midline, and 2 floor locations. Frequencies and durations of touches and time spent in the air while moving the hands from one location to another were coded frame-by-frame using Datavyu.
Preliminary analyses performed on two conditions (baseline and toys in view) revealed that infants spent significantly more time in the air (p < .0001), moving from one area to another, than touching their bodies or the floor. The Frequency of touches directed towards the body was greater than the floor (p < .0001), however, the total duration of touches was not significantly different between the body and the floor (p >.05). Furthermore, touches on the body were concentrated on the torso and the face, with increased frequencies to the torso over time and decreased touches to the face. There were no differences between conditions. Overall there were only a few significant developmental trends, however, there were differences between infants. Infants displaying a strong head turn preference showed increased touches to their bodies and floor with the contralateral hand.
These preliminary analyses show that during the first two months of life, infants move their arms more than they touch their own body. Moving the arms provides important proprioceptive feedback, while touching the body or floor provides specific spatial endpoints to the arm movements. We think that this process of moving the arms and touching the body or the floor contribute to the mapping of the body and the mapping of actions in space. Such mappings are critical for the formation of goal-directed actions that develop in the subsequent months.

Authors

• John P Connell, University of Tennessee
  Presenting Author

• Matthew Clark, University of Tennessee
  Non-Presenting Author

• Abigail DiMercurio, University of Tennessee
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daniela Corbetta, University of Tennesee, Knoxville
  Non-Presenting Author