Exploration in the Presence of Mother in Typically and Non-typically Developing Pre-walking Human Infants

Using an arsenal of tools previously developed for the study of origin-related exploration in animals, we compared exploration of human pre-walking Typically-Developing (TD) and Non-Typically Developing (NTD) infants in the presence of mother. The NTD infants had been referred to a center for the treatment of autism by pediatric neurologists and expert clinicians. Using computational analysis we document in TD infants a phylogenetic ancient behavior: origin-related exploration. Strikingly, while the TD infants exhibited excursions in reference to mother and deep engagement with mother when visiting her, the NTD infants tended to avoid mother’s place, performing few if any excursions, and exhibiting shallow engagement with mother. Given the pervasiveness of origin-related exploration in invertebrates, vertebrates, and primates, we now face a challenge to find an animal model that will exhibit active exploration while ignoring or suppressing the return to the origin, be it a mother or any other safe haven.