An interesting interpretation on Radio Canada of an even more interesting science project (where do people get these ideas?!) carried out by a team on University Paris Descartes (Paris, France).

The paper is named "Neonatal Stepping in Relation to Terrestrial Optic Flow". In brief, the researchers  suspended a bunch of 3-day-olds above moving images representing forward translation, and observed that the babies started moving as if they wanted to walk. Here is the abstract :

This experiment examined whether newborn stepping, a primitive form of bipedal locomotion, could be modulated by optical flow. Forty-eight 3-day-old infants were exposed to optical flows that were projected onto a horizontal surface above which the infants were suspended. Significantly more air steps were elicited by exposure to a terrestrial optical flow specifying forward translation than by a rotating optical flow or a static optical pattern. Thus, a rudimentary coupling between optical flow and stepping is present at birth, suggesting a precocious capacity in the newborn to perceive and utilize visual information specifying self-motion. The findings may help the early diagnosis of infants with visual or visual-motor deficits and the development of visually based interventions for disabled infants.

"Capacity in the newborn to perceive and utilize visual information specifying self-motion". The conclusion in question, besides the straightforward one that walking and stepping are a matter of reflex reaction to visual stimuli, would be that perception can get tricked even in an experience-free mind. And… so on.

Once again, interesting interpretation. Nothing too surprising, though.