Babies’ Cries Get a Speedy Response

A recent study by Oxford University looked into the reactions adults have to a babies’ cries. The psychiatry based study compared adults’ speed of response to the classic “Whack-a-Mole” while listening to babies’ cries, tweeting birds and distressed adults. The findings? That an adults reaction is much quicker when listening to a baby in distress.

What does this mean for further research? That there may be a correlation to moms suffering from postnatal depression and their response to a babies’ cry. There may be something interrupting the quick response to a distressed baby.

The research team compared the scores of 40 volunteers playing ‘whack-a-mole’ – which requires players to hit one of nine as they light up at random – after listening to various cries including babies crying, adults in distress and birdsong played at a similar pitch to the infants’ cries.

The results, published in the journal Acta Paediatrica, suggest baby cries get special attention, Kringelbach said.

“Few sounds provoke a visceral reaction quite like the cry of a baby,” he said in a statement. “For example, it’s almost impossible to ignore crying babies on planes…despite all the other noises and distractions around.”

The scientists said their work was not purely an academic exercise, but could help researchers studying women with post-natal depression, who may be suffering some kind of disruption to this baby cry response.

“Depression and postnatal depression may result in some people not attending so much to babies’ cries. We are looking at whether interventions can make a difference to this,” Kringelbach said. (Source: Reuters.com)

 

Photo Source: Reuters.com