TY - JOUR

T1 - Suppression of the optokinetic reflex in human infants: implications for stable fixation and shifts of attention.

AU - Aslin, R. N.

AU - Johnson, S. P.

PY - 1996

Y1 - 1996

N2 - The ability of 1-, 2-, and 4-month-old infants to attend to a small, stationary visual target while a large background texture moved horizontally was assessed using electrooculography. The background texture, consisting of a randomly arranged field of dots or a set of vertically oriented stripes, was effective at all ages in eliciting the optokinetic reflex (OKR), which stabilizes gaze on a moving display. When the target, consisting of a red bar, was added to the center of the moving background display, it was effective in suppressing the OKR, except in 1-month-olds. Under monocular viewing conditions, background motion in the nasal-temporal direction was ineffective in eliciting robust OKR in 1- and 2-month-olds. These same infants presented with temporal-nasal background motion showed robust OKR equal to their OKR under binocular viewing conditions. However, the 2-month-olds showed OKR suppression only half as often as they did under binocular viewing conditions, and the 1-month-olds did not show OKR suppression. The 4-month-olds showed no nasal-temporal OKR asymmetry under monocular viewing conditions, and, like the 2-month-olds, OKR suppression was present about half as often as under binocular viewing conditions.

AB - The ability of 1-, 2-, and 4-month-old infants to attend to a small, stationary visual target while a large background texture moved horizontally was assessed using electrooculography. The background texture, consisting of a randomly arranged field of dots or a set of vertically oriented stripes, was effective at all ages in eliciting the optokinetic reflex (OKR), which stabilizes gaze on a moving display. When the target, consisting of a red bar, was added to the center of the moving background display, it was effective in suppressing the OKR, except in 1-month-olds. Under monocular viewing conditions, background motion in the nasal-temporal direction was ineffective in eliciting robust OKR in 1- and 2-month-olds. These same infants presented with temporal-nasal background motion showed robust OKR equal to their OKR under binocular viewing conditions. However, the 2-month-olds showed OKR suppression only half as often as they did under binocular viewing conditions, and the 1-month-olds did not show OKR suppression. The 4-month-olds showed no nasal-temporal OKR asymmetry under monocular viewing conditions, and, like the 2-month-olds, OKR suppression was present about half as often as under binocular viewing conditions.

KW - infant

KW - visual fixation

KW - optokinetic reflex

KW - visual attention

KW - nasal-temporal asymmetry

U2 - 10.1016/S0163-6383(96)90022-3

DO - 10.1016/S0163-6383(96)90022-3

M3 - Journal article

VL - 19

SP - 233

EP - 240

JO - Infant Behavior and Development

JF - Infant Behavior and Development

SN - 1934-8800

IS - 2

ER -