A team from the Saint-Etienne University Hospital is studying the perception of infant crying in adults.
How do you know what your baby is crying for? Is he hungry? Thirst ? Cold ? Hot ? Wrong ? Because yes, the crying is the only way for the infant to communicate with those around him. Thanks to these innate vocal signals, the baby informs about his sensory, emotional or physical state when he feels pain. Despite this essential role, the information carried by crying and its processing in the adult brain is not known.
Assessing the ability of adults to distinguish crying
A neuroimaging study (fMRI) is underway on the subject at Saint-Etienne University Hospital, where more than 3,000 children are born each year. A team of doctors, researchers and acousticians are studying the perception of painful infant crying in adults. 80 male and female volunteers, parents and non-parents were recruited. All underwent an MRI while natural crying, but whose acoustic variables were controlled, was broadcast.
“The objective is to assess the ability of adults to distinguish crying related to infant pain, explains the CHU. To do this, the researchers are analyzing the neural responses induced by listening to cries recorded in two stressful situations for the child (one non-painful during bathing, one painful during vaccination)”.
Adjust the child’s therapies
“We have a lot to learn from this understanding of the cry of the child which has not been integrated into the care of the child, explains in a documentary film Professor Hugues Patural, Head of the pediatric and neonatal resuscitation department at Saint-Etienne University Hospital. We could probably adjust our therapies.” “There is a message that is transmitted” to the brain of the parents when their baby cries, explains in turn Professor Roland Peyron at the Neurology Department and at the Pain Center of the CHU Nord de Saint-Etienne. Our question today is to know in which brain region is analyzed this painful message”.
The first results of the study overturn certain prejudices: the sharpest cries are not emitted by girls and men are very good at recognizing a cry of pain. A synthesis of the first data is in progress. Patience.
.
