Multiple pathways to developmental continuity in infant cognition.

In their provocative opinion piece, Blumberg and Adolph (B&A) [ 1. Blumberg M.S. Adolph K.E. Protracted development of motor cortex constrains rich interpretations of infant cognition. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2023; 27: 233-245 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (6) Google Scholar ] argue that inferences regarding cognitive development in infancy that are based on young infants’ motor behaviors are misleading. They assert that the motor behaviors, including eye movements and looking-time measures traditionally used to characterize cognition between birth and 4 months, are mediated by subcortical mechanisms and, therefore, that this disconnect between the cortex and motor behaviors ‘does not support claims of developmental continuity between early infant and adult cognition’. In our view, their thesis (i) is inconsistent with several lines of evidence, and (ii) fails to provide a productive path forward in studies of infant development.