Scientists have finally solved the mystery of why babies kick in the womb. Apparently random movements boost the development of the sensorimotor system 👶
The discovery has implications for medical conditions and developing more agile machines.
Dr Hoshinori Kanazawa, of the University of Tokyo and a co-author of the study, said: ‘Previous research into sensorimotor development has focused on kinematic properties, muscle activities which cause movement in a joint or a part of the body. Muscle activity and sensory input signals were estimated using the infant-scale musculoskeletal computer model of the whole body.Dr Kanazawa added: ‘We were surprised during spontaneous movement, infants’ movements ‘wandered’ and they pursued various sensorimotor interactions.
‘In addition to this, our findings provide a conceptual linkage between early spontaneous movements and spontaneous neuronal activity.’ The latest results support the theory newborns and infants can acquire coordination skills through spontaneous whole-body movements without an explicit purpose or task. Even through ‘sensorimotor wandering’, the babies showed an increase in coordinated whole-body and anticipatory movements. Infants showed more common patterns and sequential movements, compared to the random movements of the newborn group.
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