The relation between nonnutritive sucking and visual information processing in the human newborn.

This paper considers the relation between visual information processing and the burst-pause pattern of nonnutritive sucking in the human infant. Sucking and visual scanning activity were investigated in 2 independent studies. The results did not support the view that sucking is affected by ongoing processing activity. It is argued that previously reported effects of processing on sucking reflect a phasic component of the orientation reaction (OR) to stimuli, not a sustained processing of those stimuli. Additionally, no existing evidence supports the idea that the components of the natural burst-pause pattern of sucking differentially affect information processing in the human newborn.