‘Dementia link to sudden low blood pressure and dizziness’
October 13, 2024
Babies as young as two months can anticipate being picked up by their mothers and are able to prepare themselves by adjusting their bodies, according to a new study…
Babies are able to anticipate being picked up by their mothers and prepare themselves accordingly. These are the findings of a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Portsmouth, the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Aarhus University.
The research, which has been published in the journal PLOS ONE, reveals that infants as young as two months can determine when their mothers are about to pick them up. In turn, most babies will adjust their body postures accordingly, making it easier for their mothers to hold them.
The researchers conducted two studies: one involving 18 babies aged three months and a second involving 10 babies aged between two and four months. Participating infants were placed on pressure mats to measure their postural adjustments during three distinct stages. The babies were monitored whilst their mothers chatted with them, as their mothers approached them with open arms, and as they were picked up.
To find out more about the ways in which babies anticipate upcoming cuddles, I spoke to lead author Vasudevi Reddy, Professor of Developmental and Cultural Psychology at the University of Portsmouth. I began by asking how exactly babies can tell that a cuddle is coming.
“My colleagues and I studied babies between two and four months of age,” Professor Reddy replied. “By this point, they have been picked up countless times. We monitored the babies’ actions during three distinct phases: preliminary chat, the mother’s approach, and the actual pick up. When babies saw their mothers approaching with their arms out, they started to adjust their postures. This visual cue was sufficient to initiate preparatory adjustments.”
The majority of participating babies made specific postural adjustments when their mothers stretched out their arms to pick them up. Infants were observed extending and stiffening their legs to increase body rigidity and stability, and widening or raising their arms to create space for their mothers to hold them.
“We observed two main shifts in behaviour,” Professor Reddy explained. “Firstly, babies exhibited a decrease in general movement. Their initial thrashing, which could be viewed as an indication of their excitement, reduced during the approach phase. In fact, there was a steady decrease in this movement across all three phases. Once the babies had slowed their body movements, they began to increase the number of adjustments that they were making in preparation for being picked up.
“The most noticeable adjustments that the babies made involved their legs,” continued Professor Reddy. “There are two ways in which the babies adjusted their legs; they either stiffened them and stuck them out, or they tucked them up into their bodies to make themselves more compact. They also adjusted their arms in preparation for pick up. We saw babies open their arms, put them above their heads, or even – in a couple of instances – lift them up. The latter really did come as a surprise. You don’t tend to see babies lift up their arms as you pick them up because everything is happening so fast. However, when we slowed the videos and watched them frame by frame, this action was really quite striking.”
The team’s results suggest that between the ages of two and four months, babies hone their ability to anticipate and adapt to being held. Professor Reddy and her colleagues observed an increase in the smoothness and coordination of movements as participating infants’ ages increased.
“When we looked at the percentage of time that infants spent making their adjustments, we noticed that the differentiation between the three phases was much clearer in the four-month olds than it was in the two-month olds,” she said. “This isn’t to say that the younger babies weren’t making these adjustments, but their timing was much more sporadic.”
Professor Reddy’s findings suggest that between the ages of two and four months, babies become more adept at preparing themselves to be picked up. So, are babies learning exclusively from experience, or is this ability in some way connected to natural instinct?
“Well, we haven’t worked with babies younger than two months of age,” answered Professor Reddy. “I do know that even at birth, some babies will cuddle into the bodies of their mothers once they’ve been picked up. Even so, I would speculate that this type of behaviour is learned during the first few weeks of a baby’s life.”
Participating mothers were asked about how their babies responded to their advances before any of the tests were conducted. Whilst some reported that their infants stiffened their legs or raised their arms before being picked up, slow-motion video footage revealed that babies’ postural adjustments were generally more pronounced than their mothers had realised. I asked Professor Reddy to what extent these actions serve to help the mother.
“We are not suggesting that these adjustments are consciously intended to make life easier for the mother,” said Professor Reddy. “However, they have this effect by preventing the baby from acting as a dead weight. For instance, it is difficult to pick up a bag of compost because compost doesn’t adjust itself in a proportionate manner. There is something about relative body tension that makes a baby easier to handle.”
Professor Reddy and her colleagues believe that their findings have the potential to facilitate the early detection of certain developmental problems. The failure to anticipate and adjust to being picked up, for example, has been noted amongst autistic children in previous studies. It is possible, therefore, that these abilities could be used as early indicators for such conditions.
“One of the first people to refer to the phenomenon of postural adjustment was psychologist Leo Kanner: one of the early pioneers from the field of autism-related research,” concluded Professor Reddy. “Some of the parents with whom he was working in the 1940s reported that their young autistic children – not babies – didn’t adjust their bodies when being picked up. My colleagues and I would really like to investigate this phenomenon amongst younger children with autism. If our findings are favourable, it might be possible to use postural adjustment – or the lack thereof – as an early indicator for this type of behavioural problem.”
Source Scienceomega.com