MRI: Acquisition of a Mobile Robot System to Support Research on Robotic-Assisted Locomotion and its Effect on Development of Executive Function

Ithaca College, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

This award will permit Dr. Sharon Stansfield and Ithaca College to acquire instrumentation that will support ongoing research into the effect of locomotor experience in typically developing infants. It has been suggested that infants' movements, such as reaching, crawling and walking, may be important for the development of certain aspects of cognition and perception. The purpose of this research is to a) further develop a mobile robot platform and associated software that lets a baby "drive" a robot by leaning in the direction that the baby wants to travel and b) to then use this robot system in research to examine the effect of locomotor experience on cognitive development in typically developing, pre-crawling infants. If enhanced locomotor experience leads to enhanced cognitive development in typically developing infants, these results would provide the impetus for future research using the robot system to provide mobility to children with conditions that involve motor impairment, such as Down syndrome, developmental coordination disorder, spina bifida, and cerebral palsy. Children with such impairments often also exhibit cognitive developmental delays. This research may lead to the development of technology that provides mobility to very young children with delayed or limited independent locomotion, thus providing an avenue for mediating these cognitive development delays. The hypothesis of the current research is that infants who have experience with independent locomotion using the robot will show higher levels of cognitive development than those without this experience. Five-month old infants will be randomly assigned to an experimental group that drives the robot during each session or to a control group that does not. Infants will complete twelve 20-minute sessions, followed by a battery of tasks including versions of a Depth Perception, Means-End, A-not-B, and Switch Task that assess aspects of cognition related to movement. Findings from this research will provide insight into the basic mechanisms involved in the cognitive development of both typically developing infants and infants with motor impairment, and may lead to the creation of an assistive technology that will benefit children with motor impairment in the course of their daily lives.