The Role of Proprioception in the Development of Reaching and Knowledge About the Self

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Proprioception plays a central role in the acquisition of movements directed to the external world (e.g., reaching) and in acquisition of knowledge about the self. In the former case, information about the position of the body and limbs is critical for performing many goal-directed actions. In the latter case, information about body or limb position, carried by proprioception, is crucial for building a representation of the body, and more abstract forms of knowledge about the self. Yet research on reaching development and research on body knowledge development have remained largely separate. In the present symposium, we seek to bridge this environment-body divide by bringing together a multi-disciplinary and international group of scientists who consider the role of proprioception in the development of reaching and knowledge about the body. Speaker 1 considers the proprioceptive origins of reaching, and presents new research that contrasts pre-reaching infants’ self-touches with arm activity that is directed to the external environment. Speaker 2 presents new research on young infants’ detection of sensorimotor contingencies involving proprioception, and the problem of inferring self-awareness from this ability. Speaker 3 describes new research on how early exposure to proprioceptive-tactile-visual contingencies engendered by reaching to one’s body accelerates mirror self-recognition. Speaker 4, a developmental roboticist, discusses simulation and computational experiments to address how somatosensory (proprioception-touch) experience jointly promotes reaching development and self-knowledge. Panel-audience discussion will focus on building a multi-disciplinary research agenda that combines behavioral and computational methods to understand the developmental interplay between proprioception, reaching and knowledge about the self.

Sub Unit

• Perceptual, Sensory, Motor

Chair

• Jeffrey J Lockman, Tulane University

Individual Presentations

• The Proprioceptive Origins of Infant Reaching - Presenting Author: Daniela Corbetta, University of Tennessee - Knoxville

• A longitudinal study of seven 2- to 6-month-old infants wearing a rattle on their wrist - Presenting Author: J. Kevin O'Regan, Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire and Université de Paris; Non-Presenting Author: Claire de Fremond, University of Paris; Non-Presenting Author: Judith Vergne; Non-Presenting Author: Pramod Murthy, DFKI; Non-Presenting Author: Eszter Somogyi, University of Portsmouth; Non-Presenting Author: Jacqueline Fagard, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

• Proprioception, Body Reaching, and the Development of Mirror Self-Recognition - Presenting Author: Lisa K. Chinn, University of Houston; Non-Presenting Author: Katarina S. Patton, Tulane University; Non-Presenting Author: Claire Noonan, Tulane University; Non-Presenting Author: Jeffrey J Lockman, Tulane University

• Reaching to the Self and to the World: From Babies to Robots - Presenting Author: Matej Hoffmann, Czech Technical University in Prague