Protracted development of motor cortex constrains rich interpretations of infant cognition |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA;2. Iowa Neuroscience Institute, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA;3. DeLTA Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA;4. Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA;1. School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK;1. Department of Complex Trait Genetics, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Amsterdam UMC location Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;1. Temple University;2. University of Pennsylvania;3. University of Western Ontario;4. Brescia University College;1. Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK |
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| Abstract: | Cognition in preverbal human infants must be inferred from overt motor behaviors such as gaze shifts, head turns, or reaching for objects. However, infant mammals – including human infants – show protracted postnatal development of cortical motor outflow. Cortical control of eye, face, head, and limb movements is absent at birth and slowly emerges over the first postnatal year and beyond. Accordingly, the neonatal cortex in humans cannot generate the motor behaviors routinely used to support inferences about infants’ cognitive abilities, and thus claims of developmental continuity between infant and adult cognition are suspect. Recognition of the protracted development of motor cortex should temper rich interpretations of infant cognition and motivate more serious consideration of the role of subcortical mechanisms in early cognitive development. |
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