Head turning in the human neonate: Effect of pradial condition and lateral preference.

Abstract

Head-turning responses, elicited in 75 3-day-old human neonates by lateralized tactile stimulation of the perioral region, showed a marked preponderance of ipsilateral responses, a differentiation between responsiveness to right and left perioral stimulation reflected in more ipsilateral (p < .01) and fewer contralateral responses (p < .02) to right than to left perioral stimulation, and finally, a reduction of the preferential responsiveness to lateralized stimulation as a function of the time elapsed since the last feeding. These findings were specifically related to the organization of several patterns of neonatal head turning and their general implications for theories of neonatal behavioral organization were explored.