PONDER IT
When in danger, get up and crawl
September 29, 2009
John Sakamoto
Do infants start to crawl once they're able to detect approaching danger?
That's one of the intriguing possibilities raised by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
"Infants' ability to see whether an object is approaching on a direct collision course, and when it is likely to collide, develops around the time they become more mobile," notes Springer.com, publishers of the online journal Naturwissenschaften – The Science of Nature.
This, the authors conclude, "could be interpreted as a sign that appropriate neural networks are in the process of being established and that the age of 8 to 9 months would be an important age for doing so. Coincidentally, this is also the average age at which infants start crawling."
Ruud van der Weel and Audrey van der Meer established the link by measuring brain activity in infants as a multicoloured dot on a screen approached them at different speeds.
"This makes sense from a perspective where brain and behavioural development go hand in hand," the authors write. "Namely, as infants gain better control of self- produced locomotion, their perceptual abilities for sensing looming danger improve."
John Sakamoto
Toronto Star