Two experiments are proposed which describe intermanual coordination and intermanual transfer of haptic experience during the period of infancy when the corpus callosum first begins to show electrophysiological evidence of function. Each of the proposed procedures have proven to be effective indicators of callosal functioning in animal studies and in studies of callosectomized patients but neither has been employed previously for investigating infant sensorimotor ability. Experiment 1 provides a description of the spatial and temporal pattern of organization involved in intermanual coordination of the movements of the two hands during the bimanual reaching of 7-15 month old infants. Examination of the effects of perturbing the actions of one hand (by unexpected and expected changes in load and trajectory) on the pattern of coordination, means that a procedure commonly used in study of the organization of motor control in adults will be applied to the study of infant motor control. Using equivalent procedures will help forge links between theory of motor control in infants and adults. Intermanual coordination is an important aspect of most theories of infant development. However, research has typically focused on describing the occurrence of this pattern rather than on the specific aspects of how it is organized. Experiment 2 uses a simple learning procedure (employing a novel but spontaneous behavioral response) to examine the ability of infants to discriminate the properties of objects by haptic perception. The experiment will identify the effects of stimulus properties (form, texture, temperature) and hand (right or left) used to perceive the stimuli on the infant's ability to learn a haptic discrimination and to transfer this learning to the use of the other (untrained) hand. This procedure opens the possibility of systematic examination of the information processing aspects of haptic perception and allows for direct psychological examination of the processes of interhemispheric communication. Both experiments approach the investigation of infant sensorimotor ability from a neuropsychological perspective. In each, the subject variables of sex, age, and handedness status are used as prediction variables because they have been known to contribute to important individual differences in neuropsychological investigations of hemispheric specialization of function and interhemispheric interaction.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01HD022399-01
Application #
3321901
Study Section
Cognition, Emotion, and Personality Research Review Committee (CEP)
Project Start
1986-12-01
Project End
1988-01-31
Budget Start
1986-12-01
Budget End
1988-01-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1987
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Children's Hospital Boston
Department
Type
DUNS #
076593722
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02115
Michel, George F; Babik, Iryna; Nelson, Eliza L et al. (2013) How the development of handedness could contribute to the development of language. Dev Psychobiol 55:608-20
Michel, George F; Nelson, Eliza L; Babik, Iryna et al. (2013) Multiple trajectories in the developmental psychobiology of human handedness. Adv Child Dev Behav 45:227-60
Kimmerle, Marliese; Ferre, Claudio L; Kotwica, Kathleen A et al. (2010) Development of role-differentiated bimanual manipulation during the infant's first year. Dev Psychobiol 52:168-80
Hinojosa, Trisha; Sheu, Ching-Fan; Michel, George F (2003) Infant hand-use preferences for grasping objects contributes to the development of a hand-use preference for manipulating objects. Dev Psychobiol 43:328-34
Michel, George F; Sheu, Ching-Fan; Brumley, Michele R (2002) Evidence of a right-shift factor affecting infant hand-use preferences from 7 to 11 months of age as revealed by latent class analysis. Dev Psychobiol 40:1-13
Michel, G F (2001) A developmental-psychobiological approach to developmental neuropsychology. Dev Neuropsychol 19:11-32
Michel, G F (1992) Maternal influences on infant hand-use during play with toys. Behav Genet 22:163-76