Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T09:23:53.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mommy or me? Who is the agent in a sense of agency in infant orofacial stereotypies?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2017

Gerry Leisman
Gerry Leisman*
Affiliation:
The National Institute for Brain and Rehabilitation Sciences, Nazareth, Israel 16470. g.leisman@alumni.manchester.ac.ukwww.nibrs.org Laboratory for Clinical Neurophysiology, Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de la Habana, Havana, Cuba 10400.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

That neonates imitate is an assertion that lacks supporting evidence. Orofacial stereotypies are critical to optimizing food rejection. Matching of tongue-protrusion is not imitation, but a manifestation of the infant's arousal by the modeler's exhibition of the same behavior. The support for the nativist assertion that newborn infants imitate is not compelling, and we should proceed on the assumption that they do not.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e393
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anisfeld, M. (1991) Review: Neonatal imitation. Developmental Review 11(1):60–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anisfeld, M. (1996) Only tongue protrusion modeling is matched by neonates. Developmental Review 16(2):149–61. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1006/drev.1996.0006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anisfeld, M. (2005) No compelling evidence to dispute Piaget's timetable of the development of representational imitation in infancy. In: Perspectives on imitation: From cognitive neuroscience to social science, vol. 2: Imitation, human development, and culture, ed. Hurley, S. & Chater, N., pp. 107–32. MIT.Google Scholar
Ferrari, P. F., Rozzi, S. & Fogassi, L. (2006a) Mirror neurons responding to observation of actions made with tools in monkey ventral premotor cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17(2):212–26. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1162/0898929053124910.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fontaine, R. (1984) Imitative skills between birth and six months. Infant Behavior and Development 7(3):323–33.Google Scholar
Gottlieb, G. (2007) Probabilistic epigenesis. Developmental Science 10(1):1–11. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00556.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Humphrey, T. (1970) The development of human fetal activity and its relation to postnatal behaviour. In: Advances in child development and behavior, vol. 5., ed. Reese, H. W. & Lipsitt, L. P., pp. 2–57. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Iacoboni, M. & Dapretto, M. (2006) The mirror neuron system and the consequences of its dysfunction. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 7(12):942–51. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2024.Google Scholar
Jones, S. S. (1996) Imitation or exploration? Young infants' matching of adults' oral gestures. Child Development 67(5):1952–69. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/1131603.Google Scholar
Jones, S. S. (2006a) Exploration or imitation? The effect of music on 4-week-old infants' tongue protrusions. Infant Behavior and Development 29(1):126–30. Available at: https://doi.org/.1016/j.infbeh.2005.08.004.Google Scholar
Keven, N. & Akins, K. (2016) Neonatal imitation in context: Sensory-motor development in the perinatal period. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1–107. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X16000911.Google Scholar
Leisman, G., Macahdo, C., Melillo, R. & Mualem, R. (2012) Intentionality and “free-will” from a neurodevelopmental perspective. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience 6:36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lepage, J.-F. & Théoret, H. (2007) The mirror neuron system: Grasping others' actions from birth? Developmental Science 10(5):513–23. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00631.x.Google Scholar
Lhermitte, F., Pillon, B. & Serdaru, M. (1986) Human autonomy and the frontal lobes. Part I: Imitation and utilization behavior: A neuropsychological study of 75 patients. Annals of Neurology 19(4):326–34.Google Scholar
Longo, M. R., Kosobud, A. & Bertenthal, B. I. (2008) Automatic imitation of biomechanically possible and impossible actions: Effects of priming movements versus goals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 34(2):489–501.Google Scholar
McGraw, M. B. (1943) Neuromuscular maturation of the human infant. Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Melillo, R. & Leisman, G. (2009) Neurobehavioral disorders of childhood: An evolutionary perspective. Springer.Google Scholar
Meltzoff, A. N. & Moore, M. K. (1983) Newborn infants imitate adult facial gestures. Child Development 54(3):702–9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/1130058.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prechtl, H. F. R. (1986) Prenatal motor development. In: Motor development in children: Aspects of coordination and control, ed. Wade, M. G. & Whiting, H. T. A., pp. 53–64. Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Sarnat, H. B. (2003) Functions of the corticospinal and corticobulbar tracts in the human newborn. Journal of Pediatric Neurology 1(01):3–8.Google Scholar