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Infants predict other people's action goals

Nature Neuroscience volume 9, pages 878–879 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Do infants come to understand other people's actions through a mirror neuron system that maps an observed action onto motor representations of that action? We demonstrate that a specialized system for action perception guides proactive goal-directed eye movements in 12-month-old but not in 6-month-old infants, providing direct support for this view. The activation of this system requires observing an interaction between the hand of the agent and an object.

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Figure 1: Sample pictures of stimulus videos.
Figure 2: Gaze performance during observation of actions and moving objects.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants to C.v.H. from the Tercentennial Fund of the Bank of Sweden (J2004-0511), McDonnell Foundation (21002089), and European Union (EU004370: robot-cub).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Box 1225, Uppsala, 751 42, Sweden

    Terje Falck-Ytter, Gustaf Gredebäck & Claes von Hofsten

Authors
  1. Terje Falck-Ytter
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  2. Gustaf Gredebäck
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  3. Claes von Hofsten
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Terje Falck-Ytter.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table 1

Descriptive statistics; gaze timing relative to moving target (PDF 48 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Descriptive statistics; gaze timing relative to moving target as a function of action number (within trial) (PDF 49 kb)

Supplementary Table 3

Descriptive statistics; looking time ratio (goal AOI/goal+trajectory AOIs) (PDF 53 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 95 kb)

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Falck-Ytter, T., Gredebäck, G. & von Hofsten, C. Infants predict other people's action goals. Nat Neurosci 9, 878–879 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1729

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