A predisposition for biological motion in the newborn baby

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707021105
• Publication Date: 2008-01-04T01:44:53Z
• Authors: Francesca Simion; Lucia Regolin; Hermann Bulf
• Keywords: Biological motion

An inborn predisposition to attend biological motion has long been theorized, but had so far demonstrated only in one animal species (the domestic chicken). In particular, no preference for was reported human infants of <3 months age. We tested 2-day-old babies' discrimination after familiarization and their spontaneous preferences vs. nonbiological point-light animations. Newborns were shown be able discriminate between two different patterns (Exp. 1) and, when first exposed them, selectively preferred look at the display 2). This also orientation-dependent: newborns looked longer upright displays than upside-down 3). These data support hypothesis that detection is an intrinsic capacity visual system, which presumably part evolutionarily ancient nonspecies-specific system predisposing animals preferentially other animals.