Neonatal pain cries: effect of circumcision on acoustic features and perceived urgency.

The relation between neonatal cry features elicited by painful circumcision procedures and the perceived urgency of those cries was investigated. Vocalizations were recorded during circumcision of 30 normal newborn males, analyzed by spectrographic methods and validated with computer techniques. The most invasive procedures elicited significantly longer crying bouts; shorter quiet intervals; shorter, more frequent vocalizations; higher peak fundamental frequencies; fewer harmonics; and greater variability of the fundamental. Cries elicited by the most intrusive procedures were judged by adult listeners to be the most urgent, and cries from similarly invasive procedures were judged to be of the same degree of urgency. Cries appeared to be judged along 3 dimensions described by harmonic, temporal, and pitch characteristics. Subjective judgments and objective quantitative data converge to demonstrate that infants' cries are perceived as varying and, objectively, do systematically vary with respect to the intensity of painful stimuli.

[1]  B. Lester,et al.  Acoustic features and auditory perceptions of the cries of newborns with prenatal and perinatal complications. , 1978, Child development.

[2]  K. Michelsson,et al.  Sound Spectrographic Cry Analysis of Infants with Bacterial Meningitis , 1977, Developmental medicine and child neurology.

[3]  P. S. Zeskind.  Adult responses to cries of low and high risk infants , 1980 .

[4]  B. Lester,et al.  Analysis of cry features in newborns with differential fetal growth. , 1981, Child development.

[5]  B. Lester,et al.  A Biobehavioral Perspective on Crying in Early Infancy , 1982 .

[6]  D. Grimes.  Routine circumcision of the newborn infant: a reappraisal. , 1978, American journal of obstetrics and gynecology.

[7]  P. S. Zeskind.  Behavioral dimensions and cry sounds of infants of differential fetal growth , 1981 .

[8]  H. Hollien,et al.  Acoustical characteristics of infant cries: fundamental frequency , 1977, Journal of Child Language.

[9]  J Lejeune,et al.  Spectrographic analysis of cries from children with maladie du cri du chat. , 1966, Annales paediatriae Fenniae.

[10]  H. C. Miller,et al.  Diagnosis of impaired fetal growth in newborn infants. , 1971, Pediatrics.

[11]  P. S. Zeskind.  A Developmental Perspective of Infant Crying , 1985 .

[12]  K. Michelsson,et al.  Effect of Training on Ability to Identify Preverbal Vocalizations , 1964, Developmental medicine and child neurology.

[13]  J. Bates,et al.  The cries of infants of differing levels of perceived temperamental difficultness: acoustic properties and effects on listeners. , 1982, Child development.

[14]  P. S. Zeskind,et al.  Adult perceptions of pain and hunger cries: a synchrony of arousal. , 1985, Child development.

[15]  J. Lind,et al.  The Infant Cry. A Spectrographic and Auditory Analysis , 1969 .

[16]  G. S. Stern,et al.  Reactions of adult humans to cries of normal and abnormal infants , 1978 .

[17]  K. Michelsson,et al.  Cry analysis in infants with severe malnutrition , 1978, European Journal of Pediatrics.

[18]  K. Michelsson,et al.  CRY ANALYSES OF SYMPTOMLESS LOW BIRTH WEIGHT NEONATES AND OF ASPHYXIATED NEWBORN INFANTS , 1971, Acta paediatrica Scandinavica. Supplement.

[19]  O. Wasz‐Höckert,et al.  Vocal response to painful stimuli in newborn and young infant. , 1966, Annales paediatriae Fenniae.

[20]  A. Frodi.  Fathers' and Mothers' Responses to the Faces and Cries of Normal and Premature Infants. , 1978 .

[21]  C. Boukydis,et al.  Perception of Infant Crying as an Interpersonal Event , 1985 .

[22]  A. Murray.  Infant crying as an elicitor of parental behavior: an examination of two models. , 1979, Psychological bulletin.

[23]  S. Boxerman,et al.  Circumcision I: Effects upon newborn behavior , 1980 .

[24]  R. Ringel,et al.  NEONATAL CRYING: A NORMATIVE STUDY. , 1964, Folia phoniatrica.

[25]  B. Lester,et al.  Spectrum analysis of the cry sounds of well-nourished and malnourished infants. , 1976, Child development.

[26]  Barry M. Lester,et al.  A biosocial model of infant crying , 1984 .

[27]  C. Malatesta,et al.  Differential parental response to familiar and unfamiliar infant distress signals , 1981 .

[28]  A. H. Parmelee.  SELECTION OF DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES FOR INFANTS AT RISK , 1976 .

[29]  S KARELITZ,et al.  The cry latencies of normal infants and those with brain damage. , 1963, The Journal of pediatrics.

[30]  S. Friedman,et al.  Preterms of low medical risk: Spontaneous behaviors and soothability at expected date of birth. , 1982 .

[31]  A. Engebretson.  Computer system for auditory research (RAP‐III) , 1977 .

[32]  J. Lind,et al.  CRY SOUNDS OF THE NEWBORN INFANT 1, 2 , 1965 .

[33]  L. Leavitt,et al.  Physiology and Behavior , 1985 .

[34]  Barry M. Lester,et al.  Brazelton scale and physical size correlates of neonatal cry features , 1978 .

[35]  R. L. Burgess,et al.  Adult physiological response to infant cries: effects of temperament of infant, parental status, and gender. , 1982, Child development.

[36]  K. Michelsson,et al.  Spectrographic analysis of pain cry in neonates with cleft palate. , 1975, Biology of the neonate.

[37]  G. Gustafson,et al.  Acoustic correlates of individuality in the cries of human infants. , 1984, Developmental psychobiology.

[38]  J. Lind.  The infant cry. , 1971, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine.

[39]  N. Cowan,et al.  Mothers' perceptions of infant distress vocalizations. , 1982, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[40]  C. Zahn-Waxler,et al.  Perceptions of cries of full-term and preterm infants , 1982 .

[41]  H. C. Miller,et al.  Fetal malnutrition in white newborn infants: maternal factors. , 1973, Pediatrics.

[42]  O. Wasz‐Höckert,et al.  Spectrographic analysis of pain cry in hyperbilirubinemia. , 1971, Biology of the neonate.

[43]  Michael J. Corwin,et al.  A Physioacoustic Model of the Infant Cry , 1985 .

[44]  R. Stark,et al.  Features of infant sounds: the first eight weeks of life , 1975, Journal of Child Language.

[45]  A N Popper,et al.  Cepstral and stationarity analyses of full-term and premature infants' cries. , 1974, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[46]  B. Lester.  A Synergistic Process Approach to the Study of Prenatal Malnutrition , 1979 .

[47]  H. Hollien,et al.  Perceptual responses to infant crying: identification of cry types , 1974, Journal of Child Language.

[48]  P. S. Vivekananthan,et al.  A multidimensional approach to the structure of personality impressions. , 1968, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[49]  John Lind,et al.  CRY MOTIONS OF THE NEWBORN INFANT , 1965 .

[50]  H. Prechtl,et al.  Neurological Findings in Newborn Infants After Pre- and Paranatal Complications , 1968 .

[51]  H L Golub,et al.  Infant cry: a clue to diagnosis. , 1982, Pediatrics.

[52]  S B Boxerman,et al.  Circumcision: II. Effects upon mother-infant interaction. , 1982, Early human development.

[53]  B. Lester.  Cardiac Habituation of the Orienting Response to an Auditory Signal in Infants of Varying Nutritional Status. , 1975 .

[54]  K. Michelsson,et al.  Sound-spectrographic cry analysis of normal and abnormal newborn infants. A review and a recommendation for standardization of the cry characteristics. , 1976, Folia phoniatrica.

[55]  R. Cattell.  The Scree Test For The Number Of Factors. , 1966, Multivariate behavioral research.