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Biomedical subjects

G Butterworth

Publications and source records attributed to G Butterworth.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Origins of the proprioceptive function of vision: visual control of posture in one day old domestic chicks.

Recently hatched domestic chicks control their upright bipedal posture, at least in part, with respect to the flow of visual information at the retina, as do human infants when they first acquire control of the head, of sitting, and of standing. Some implications of the similarity of the proprioceptive function of vision in chicks and in humans for the origins and development of postural control are discussed.

Aging

Development of head position preference during early infancy: a longitudinal study in the daily life situation.

We studied developmental changes in supine head position preference in a group of 14 healthy full-term infants from age 3 to 18 weeks. The infants assumed an initial head-right position until 12 weeks. For the maintenance of a head position, a loglinear analysis revealed a developmental trend from an initial head orientation to the right to one with the head in the midline at around 12 weeks. The maintenance of a midline head position was preceded by a marked improvement in postural stabilization, defined as the ability to hold the head upright when seated in an infant chair. The relationship between head position preference and behavioral state changed with age: At 3 weeks all infants maintained the same position regardless of state, but by 18 weeks this situation held for only 64% of those who cried. The implications of these findings for the development of handedness are discussed.

Follow-Up Studies

The young child's representation of depth in drawing: process and product.

Two experiments are reported from a series of studies in which plain blocks of various sizes were presented in various spatial orientations to children aged between 3 and 8 years in an attempt to establish how they represent three-dimensional spatial relations pictorially. The major results were that young children represent depth in the array vertically in the picture plane. Two important findings were that even from an early age drawings contain "view-centered" information and that children differentiate between the relative positions of objects in the array by the temporal order of their drawing. These results show the importance of studying the drawing process as well as its product.

Art

Visual calibration of posture in normal and motor retarded Down's syndrome infants.

Infants with Down's syndrome are delayed in achieving motor milestones. When they first sit unsupported a discrepancy between visual and mechanical-vestibular indices of postural stability is less disruptive of their balance than in normal infants. Yet when they first stand unsupported, the same discrepancy disrupts balance more in these infants than in the normal infants. The effect of discrepant visual feedback also differs systematically as a function of the infants' experience of the posture. Monitoring posture in relation to a stable visual surround appears to be fundamental to the normal development of motor control.

Child Development

Visual proprioception and postural stability in infancy. A developmental study.

The effect of conflicting visual, and mechanical proprioceptive information on postural stability was compared in two groups of infants. The older group could sit or stand unsupported, while the younger group could sit but could not yet stand. The results suggest that visual proprioception functions to maintain postural stability before infants have learned to stand.

Female

Coordination of auditory and visual space in newborn human infants.

Two experiments are reported which demonstrate that the newborn human infant can make eye movements which are spatially coordinated with the locus of a sound. The results suggest that there may be an innate coordination of auditory and visual-motor space.

Auditory Perception