Massage enhances recovery from habituation in normal infants

Abstract

Research shows that touch stimulation can positively affect physiological, behavioral, and social development among infants. However, empirical evidence of the effects of touch on infants' cognitive performance is lacking. In this study, 56 4-month-olds were given either 8 minutes of massage, play, or no stimulation prior to an audiovisual habituation task. Infants who received message showed response recovery from habituation during test trials, whereas those in the other two conditions did not.