Lateralization of the Approach Movement and the Prehension Movement in Infants from 4 to 7 Months

✍ Scribed by Morange, Françoise ;Bloch, Henriette

• Book ID: 102658261
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Weight: 855 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1057-3593
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0917(199606)5:2<81::aid-edp119>3.0.co;2-m

✦ Synopsis

The aim of the study was to analyse lateraliied preferences during reaching and grasping in infants relative to changes in manual actions from 4 to 7 months of age. Reaching and grasping movements with visual fixation were studied with objects placed in one of three places on a table: to the left, to the right and in the midline of the infant. Although the two latetalized objects were approached and grasped with ipsilateral hand, movements towards the object in the midline were most often performed with a preferential hand. There was preferential use of the left hand for reaching around the fourth month, then a preferential use of the right hand for grasping from the sixth month. The shape of the left hand during reaching movements tenninated in the vicinity of the object. The slower the speed, the closer the hand came to the object. The onset of the prehension was associated with a preferential use of the right hand, which performed grasping, more finely than the left hand. Thus, manual specialization is already present in early infancy: the left hand appears to be dedicated to spatial calibration and the right hand to the task of prehension.