Four-Day-Old Human Neonates Look Longer at Non-Biological Motions of a Single Point-of-Light

BACKGROUND: Biological motions, that is, the movements of humans and other vertebrates, are characterized by dynamic regularities that reflect the structure and the control schemes of the musculo-skeletal system. Early studies on the development of the visual perception of biological motion showed that infants after three months of age distinguished between biological and non-biological locomotion. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using single point-light motions that varied with respect to the “two-third-power law” of motion generation and perception, we observed that four-day-old human neonates looked longer at non-biological motions than at biological motions when these were simultaneously presented in a standard preferential looking paradigm. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This result can be interpreted within the “violation of expectation” framework and can indicate that neonates' motion perception — like adults'—is attuned to biological kinematics.