Jiaye Cai^*1,2 (), Naiqi. G Xiao^*2, Xiaoqing Gao¹; ¹Zhejiang University, ²McMaster University ^*Equal Contribution

Interoceptive signals, such as those from self-body movement, are essential for stabilizing and optimizing sensory processing. These signals, integrated through afferent neural pathways, help differentiate between external and self-generated motion, ensuring stable visual perception. Despite their importance, the developmental origins of this integration in visual processing remain poorly understood. The current study investigated how infants' visual attention could effectively be guided by self-induced movement signals in the environment. Specifically, we developed a novel body motion feedback system allowing us to manipulate the on-screen movement of an object with participants’ own head movement to examine infants’ sensitivity to self-induced movement that was projected into the external environment. Forty infants (5- to 12-month old) participated in two experiments. Infants watched a visual display of three colorful geometric shapes moving on a computer screen. One shape (Target), moved in synchrony with the infant's head movements. The remaining shapes' movements were driven by head motion data recorded from previous infant participants. Infants' looking time toward the target shape was measured as an index of their attentional sensitivity to self-induced motion cues. Experiment 1 investigated this sensitivity when the movement was presented with no delay. Experiment 2 further explored this phenomenon by introducing temporal delays (0ms, 150ms, and 400ms) between the infants' head movements and the corresponding movement of the target shape. Infants exhibited significant attentional bias toward the target shape in Experiment 1. This bias persisted with 0ms and 150ms delays in Experiment 2 but diminished in early trials of the 400ms delay, increasing in later trials, suggesting the presence of a temporal window for infants' sensitivity to the contingency between self-generated motion and visual feedback. Our finding suggests that infants are sensitive to self-induced motion signals in the environment, revealing an early-emerging mechanism for integrating self-generated actions with visual perception.