Robust coupling of body movement and gaze in young infants

In the first few months after birth, rapid bursts of body movement precede and possibly facilitate shifts of gaze during free looking, with potential consequences for perception and cognition. Here we report that the characteristic features of movement–gaze coupling found during free looking are preserved when attention is perturbed by a salient change in the visual environment. Twenty‐four 3‐month‐olds looked at two attractive 3‐dimensional objects while body movement and corneal reflections of the objects were recorded. Lateral head movement was measured offline. After approximately 2 s of looking at one stimulus, the nonfixated stimulus either began to rotate back and forth (distracter events) or remained motionless (control events). In distracter events, the motion of the nonfixated stimulus triggered substantial motor quieting, shortened the duration of the look, and shortened the time to reorient gaze compared to control events. Abbreviated motor quieting and small increases in lateral head movement occurred during control events at the same time in the look as the protracted motor quieting and increased head movement in distracter events. Despite these perturbations, the characteristic bursts of body movement that precede shifts of gaze during free looking occurred in both distracter and control events. The results demonstrate the robust nature of early movement–gaze coupling, raise questions about the specific role of attention in the dynamic links between body movement and gaze, and highlight the potential short and long term functional significance of movement‐gaze–attention coupling. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 49: 208–215, 2007.