ABSTRACT
The work from the laboratory shows that neonates counteract the effect of weights pulling on their wrists. These results suggest that while looking at their waving arms, newborn babies are developing visual control of movement. Ten newborn babies were placed supine on a special baby bed where they put the head to one side. The experiment was carried out under dim light conditions with a narrow beam of light shining over the baby’s nose or chest in such a way that the arm the baby was facing was barely visible. The results indicated that the babies held the seen ipsilateral hand higher when the light was positioned over the nose than when it was positioned over the chest. The chapter analyses the nature and possible functional significance of neonatal arm movements in more detail. It argues that the babies actually slowed down the arm when they were in the light, indicating sophisticated control rather than excited trashing of the arms.
