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What are the principles that underlie the generation of spontaneous motor behaviour of human neonates? And what is the significance of these spontaneous movements? Fifty years ago, these questions would have been unusual for most scientists to ask because spontaneous limb movements of neonates were assumed to be of a reflexive nature and not of any significance for the development of motor regulation and cognition. Biologist Dr. Birte Aßmann shows that a detailed analysis of these spontaneous movements provides evidence for processes of self-organization, which is of crucial significance in the development of complex behaviour in nonlinear systems. Principles of organization of neonatal limb kinematics reveal that the physical apparatus´ processes of self-organization are continuous with those of higher cognitive functions. The framework of Dr. Aßmann´s analyses constitutes a dynamic approach to cognition: Emphasis is placed on the idea of an embodied cognitive system with self-organizing interactions of biomechanics, the nervous system and gravity as a first stage in forming higher organizational levels of abstraction.

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