Perception of visual-tactile colocation in the first year of life

An ability to perceive tactile and visual stimuli in a common spatial frame of reference is a crucial ingredient in forming a representation of one’s own body and the interface between bodily and external space. In this study, the authors investigated young infants’ abilities to perceive colocation between tactile and visual stimuli presented on the hands. They examined infants’ visual preferences for spatially congruent and incongruent visual-tactile events across two age groups (6 months and 10-months). They observed increased duration of looking to incongruent stimuli displays in both age groups, indicating that infants from at least 6 months of age demonstrate the ability to determine whether simultaneously presented visual-tactile perceptual events are colocated or not. These findings indicate that an ability to perceive visual and tactile stimuli within a common spatial frame of reference is available by the end of the first half year of life.