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PubMed1988

Effects of crying on cerebral blood volume and cytochrome aa3.

To determine if crying alters cerebral hemodynamics and oxidative metabolism in the brain, near infrared spectrophotometry was used to assess relative changes in cerebral blood volume and the oxidation-reduction state of cytochrome aa3. Thirty-six crying episodes were observed, 20 in healthy infants and 16 in infants with respiratory problems. Throughout all crying episodes cerebral blood volume and oxidized cytochrome aa3 demonstrated oscillatory fluctuations every 10 to 20 seconds, with maximum changes during prolonged exhalations. In 86% of episodes baseline blood volume rose and remained elevated during the cry. The relative content of deoxyhemoglobin in cerebral blood also rose, indicating that venous blood is the major contributor to the increase in blood volume. Changes in baseline cytochrome aa3 oxidation varied with the presence of lung disease and with the chronologic age of the infant. Cytochrome reduction with crying occurred significantly more often in infants with respiratory problems than in healthy infants. Cytochrome aa3 became more oxidized in 82% of crying episodes in healthy infants older than 3 days of age, but no change in cytochrome oxidation was usually noted in those younger than 3 days. Thus crying alters cerebral blood volume in all neonates in a pattern consistent with cyclic obstruction to cerebral venous return; it decreases cerebral oxygenation in infants with respiratory problems.

Blood Volume↗

PubMed1989

Abnormal brain-stem function (brain-stem auditory evoked response) correlates with acoustic cry features in term infants with hyperbilirubinemia.

We hypothesized that changes in brain-stem auditory evoked responses related to bilirubin would be associated with changes in cry because of the anatomic proximity in the brain stem of cranial nerves 8 (auditory) and 9 to 12 (vagal complex, which controls cry). Brain-stem auditory evoked responses and computerized cry analysis were used to study the concurrent effects of moderate hyperbilirubinemia on auditory function and cry. Fifty term infants were divided equally into two groups on the basis of serum bilirubin concentrations: low (less than 8 mg/dl; 136) mumol/L and moderate (10 to 20 mg/dl, 170 to 342 mumol/L). Forty-three infants had successful tracings of brain-stem auditory evoked responses recorded with a Cadwell model 5200A evoked response unit during two successive trials, and a cry recording of each infant was analyzed by computer. The moderate serum bilirubin group had an increase in percent cry phonation (p less than 0.02) and an increase in the variability of the first formant (p less than 0.04) in comparison with the low serum bilirubin group. Serum bilirubin values correlated positively with brain-stem conduction time (r = 0.36, p less than 0.01), percent phonation (r = 0.42, p less than 0.004), and variability of the first formant (r = 0.39, p less than 0.02). Percent phonation, the voiced component produced by increased neural control, correlated with the interpeak of waves latencies I to III (r = 0.32, p less than 0.03) and brain-stem conduction time (wave I to V) (r = 0.35, p less than 0.01). We conclude that hyperbilirubinemia affects adjoining areas of the brain stem that control hearing and cry production.

Brain Stem↗

PubMed2000

Infants with "Colic"-mothers' perspectives on the crying problem.

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to evaluate relationships between infant crying behavior and fussing behavior and the mother's causal attributions of the crying, her emotional responses to the crying, as well as her later perception of infant temperament. METHODS: Twenty mothers who presented their 3-9-week-old infants in pediatric practices because of excessive crying ("colic complaint group") and 20 mothers who visited for public preventive screening ("control group") were compared. Mothers kept a "baby diary." A highly structured interview with the mothers was conducted. When the babies were 4 months old, mothers completed a temperament questionnaire. The colic complaint group was subdivided using the Wessel criteria. RESULTS: Infants from the colic complaint group who did not meet these criteria did not differ from control subjects in any of the parameters derived from the diaries. However, the mothers of this group described significantly heightened negative affect and cognitions of being rejected in response to the crying. In contrast, mothers of infants who conformed to Wessel's definition, and thereby far exceeded the other subjects in crying duration, did not differ from control mothers in respect of the aforementioned feelings and cognitions. Mothers' "negative affect and feelings of being rejected" were associated with the perception of high negative emotionality 4 months later. CONCLUSION: In regard to the colic problem, attention must be paid not only to the characteristics of the child, but also to aspects of maternal perception and processing of the crying problem.

Affect↗

PubMed1998

Gender differences in physiological reactivity to infant cries and smiles in military families.

OBJECTIVE: The primary purpose of this experiment was to examine gender differences in physiological reactivity to infant cries and smiles in military families. METHOD: Twenty males and 29 females viewed and listened to videotapes of a crying infant and a smiling infant while heart rate, skin resistance, and respiration rate were monitored. All participants were active-duty U.S. Air Force personnel or their spouses. RESULTS: Males showed a larger increase in skin conductance than females during the crying infant stimulus. Males also showed an increase in heart rate during the crying infant stimulus, whereas females did not show any increase in heart rate during the crying infant stimulus. No gender differences in physiological reactivity were obtained during the smiling infant stimulus, although both males and females showed a significant increase in heart rate while viewing the smiling infant. CONCLUSIONS: The results are contrasted with previous reports (e.g., Frodi, Lamb, Leavitt, & Donovan, 1978) of no differences between genders in physiological reactivity to a crying infant. Discussion of the results focuses on models of child physical abuse that involve physiological hyperreactivity. It is hypothesized that the greater physiological reactivity of males than females during a crying infant videotape may partially explain why physical abuse of a child by a male frequently results in more serious damage to the child than physical abuse by a female.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Phonation in the newborn, infant cry.

Sound spectrographic studies have shown that the crying of newborn infants has a fundamental frequency of about 400-600 cycles per second, and mostly a slightly rising-falling melody contour. In sick infants, and especially those with diseases affecting the central nervous system, abnormal cry characteristics occur. The fundamental frequency has been increased, and the melody contour is unstable. Various cry characteristics, which rarely occur in cries of healthy infants, are more often present in cries of the sick ones. Studies of cries in newborn infants have been especially aimed to determine whether cry analysis could be successful in diagnostics and in the early detection of the infant at risk for developmental difficulties.

Crying↗

PubMed1998

Crying, fussing and colic behaviour in breast- and bottle-fed infants.

Persistent infant crying and "colic" have been linked in some studies to feeding, but this association has not been tested in a planned longitudinal study comparing breast- with formula fed babies. We used validated maternal diaries of infant behaviours, kept for three days at both two and six weeks of infant age, in a comparative study of 97 breast- or formula fed babies. The total duration of overall crying rose significantly between 2 and 6 weeks in breast-fed infants and fell in those fed formula. At 6 weeks, breast-fed infants cried an average of almost 40 minutes more per day than formula fed infants; and 31% cried for more than three hours per day, compared with only 12% of the formula fed group. At six weeks, breast-fed infants also slept almost 80 minutes less per day than the formula fed babies. While six weeks is the established peak age for infant crying, those fed formula peaked much earlier and at 2 weeks intense crying/colic behaviour occurred in 43% of formula fed babies and just 16% of those fed by breast. These findings link the timing of the infant crying peak to the mode of feeding. Our data indicate that any regimen designed to reduce crying should commence in the neonatal period in formula fed infants.

Aging↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Developmental aspects of infant's cry melody and formants.

This paper deals with the analysis of cry melodies (time variations of the fundamental frequency) as well as vocal tract resonance frequencies (formants) from infant cry signals. The increase of complexity of cry melodies is a good indicator for neuro-muscular maturation as well as for the evaluation of pre-speech development. The variation of formant frequencies allows an estimation of articulatory activity during pre-speech vocalization. Subjects are three pairs of healthy identical twins (monocygozity determined by DNA-fingerprint). Spontaneous cries of these six children were recorded at different ages: 8th-9th week, 15th-17th week and 23rd-24th week. Analysis of 136 cry melodies and intensity contours was made using KAY-CSL 4300/MDVP. For formant estimation a spectral parametric technique was applied, which was based on autoregressive models (Digital spectral analysis with applications, 1987) whose order is adaptively estimated on subsequent signal frames by means of a new method (Med. Eng. Phys. 20 (1998) 432; Utras. Med. Biol. 21 (1995) 793). Cry melodies exhibited an increasing complexity during the observation period. Beginning with the second observation period (15th-17th week) an increasing coupling and tuning between melody and resonance frequencies was observed, which was interpreted as "intentional" articulatory activity. Possible applications are in cry diagnosis as well as in the evaluation of pre-speech development.

Crying↗

PubMed2003

Individual differences in responsivity to a neurobehavioural examination predict crying patterns of 1-week-old infants at home.

Unexplained crying in infants aged 1 to 3 months is a common concern for Western parents and health services. This study examined the hypothesis that the crying is due to high infant responsivity, and provides evidence about the types of stimulation that trigger crying in infants who present with high responsivity. The sample included 93 eight-day-old infants from a community sample (47 females, 46 males; mean birthweight 3457g; mean gestation 39.4 weeks; mean Apgar scores 8.28 at 1 minute and 9.59 at 5 minutes). Infants were tested for their response to two standard, mildly challenging, procedures: a neurobehavioural test involving undressing, putting down, and handling, and the Guthrie test, involving a painful heel prick to obtain a blood sample. The infants' crying over 24 hours was recorded in parental diaries. Newborn infants who exhibited high responsivity during the neurobehavioural assessment cried, rather than fussed, the most at home. High responsivity during the neurobehavioural assessment also predicted those infants who cried a lot and met a definition of 'colic' at home. The findings support the responsivity hypothesis and show that infants with high responsivity are upset by undressing, putting down, and sustained handling. Explanations for this and implications for the management of infant crying and colic are discussed.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2000

Crying patterns of Korean infants in institutions.

This study investigates whether the crying pattern of infants reared in institutions is different from those reared at home in the same cultural backgrounds. Ninety-five institutional infants and 143 home infants, aged 2-18 weeks were studied through diaries, recorded by children's care-givers or mothers. Results showed that the crying duration of the infants in institutions was almost double that of infants at home (86 vs 45 min/day) and contact period with the care-givers was half that of home infants (136 vs 279 min/day). In addition, the duration of periods when the babies were alone was much longer in the institution group (1089 vs 1002 min/day). There was a tendency for both groups of institution and home infants to cry more during the evening (from 18.00 to 24.00 h) but there was no definite peak of crying at any age except the slight increase of crying after 12 weeks for the institution group. When compared with research on Western infants, the daily crying durations of both institution and home infants fall short of those of their Western counterparts. The effect of care-giving style on the crying pattern, including physical proximity, is discussed.

Adoption↗

PubMed2005

Acoustic characteristics of crying in infantile laryngomalacia.

The purpose of this study was to add to the extant data base of acoustic cry studies by profiling the condition of laryngomalacia. We hypothesized that the acoustic characteristics of crying produced by an infant with laryngomalacia would differ compared to previously reported cry data for normal infants. An entire episode of crying was audio recorded and acoustically analyzed for the occurrence of expiratory and inspiratory cry segments, as well as the long-time average spectral (LTAS) characteristics. Results obtained for the infant were found to be considerably different from what has been previously reported for normal infants. The overall duration of the infant's crying episode was longer, with proportionately fewer expiratory phonations and more inspiratory phonations compared to normal infants. The LTAS results were reflective of aperiodic components in the glottal source spectrum. Collectively, the infant's unusual crying aspects were not limited solely to those acoustic features resulting from a prolapse of supraglottic soft tissue, and therefore provide new insight into the vocal fold vibratory behavior characterizing infantile laryngomalacia.

Acoustics↗

PubMed2001

Pathological laughter and crying: a link to the cerebellum.

Patients with pathological laughter and crying (PLC) are subject to relatively uncontrollable episodes of laughter, crying or both. The episodes occur either without an apparent triggering stimulus or following a stimulus that would not have led the subject to laugh or cry prior to the onset of the condition. PLC is a disorder of emotional expression rather than a primary disturbance of feelings, and is thus distinct from mood disorders in which laughter and crying are associated with feelings of happiness or sadness. The traditional and currently accepted view is that PLC is due to the damage of pathways that arise in the motor areas of the cerebral cortex and descend to the brainstem to inhibit a putative centre for laughter and crying. In that view, the lesions 'disinhibit' or 'release' the laughter and crying centre. The neuroanatomical findings in a recently studied patient with PLC, along with new knowledge on the neurobiology of emotion and feeling, gave us an opportunity to revisit the traditional view and propose an alternative. Here we suggest that the critical PLC lesions occur in the cerebro-ponto-cerebellar pathways and that, as a consequence, the cerebellar structures that automatically adjust the execution of laughter or crying to the cognitive and situational context of a potential stimulus, operate on the basis of incomplete information about that context, resulting in inadequate and even chaotic behaviour.

Cerebellum↗

PubMed1977

Pain cry in full-term asphyxiated newborn infants correlated with late findings.

115 pain-induced cries from 45 full-term newborn infants with pre- and perinatal asphyxia were analyzed by sound spectrographic methods. All the infants had signs of intrauterine asphyxia and Apgar score of 6 or less at 5 min. The mean birth weight was 3170 g. The pain cries were recorded before the age of 8 days, 83% of the cries before 3 days of age. The cry analysis was compared with the pain cries of 75 full-term, healthy newborn infants of corresponding birth weight and gestational age. The results showed significant differences between the cries of the asphyxiated newborn and the healthy infants. The duration of the phonation was shorter, the maximum and minimum pitch of the fundamental frequency was significantly higher. Bi-phonation and vibrato occurred more often, double harmonic break and glottal roll less often. An increase in rising, falling-rising and flat types of melody was observed. Retrospectively, the cries were more abnormal if the infant was found to be neurologically damaged at t he check-up at 2-8 years.

Asphyxia Neonatorum↗

PubMed1996

Crying in separated and non-separated newborns: sound spectrographic analysis.

During the first 1-2 h after birth crying occurs during separation from the mother and stops on reunion. In rats, such "separation distress calls" have distinct phonetic properties. We examined this early crying by sound spectrography in 29 healthy, full-term, vaginally delivered babies, randomly assigned either to be kept in a cot or to be placed in body contact with the mother during the 90 min following birth. The former babies cried almost 10 times more than the latter ones. The duration of the cry signal (the smallest element of a cry analysed by spectrography) in both groups was 0.8-09s; the melody contour was flat or slightly rising--falling with a fundamental frequency of around 500 hertz. The cry is provisionally characterized as a discomfort cry, elicited mainly by separation from the mother.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Long term cognitive development in children with prolonged crying.

BACKGROUND: Long term studies of cognitive development and colic have not differentiated between typical colic and prolonged crying. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether colic and excessive crying that persists beyond 3 months is associated with adverse cognitive development. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. A sample of 561 women was enrolled in the second trimester of pregnancy. Colic and prolonged crying were based on crying behaviour assessed at 6 and 13 weeks. Children's intelligence, motor abilities, and behaviour were measured at 5 years (n = 327). Known risk factors for cognitive impairment were ascertained prenatally, after birth, at 6 and 13 weeks, at 6, 9, and 13 months, and at 5 years of age. RESULTS: Children with prolonged crying (but not those with colic only) had an adjusted mean IQ that was 9 points lower than the control group. Their performance and verbal IQ scores were 9.2 and 6.7 points lower than the control group, respectively. The prolonged crying group also had significantly poorer fine motor abilities compared with the control group. Colic had no effect on cognitive development. CONCLUSIONS: Excessive, uncontrolled crying that persists beyond 3 months of age in infants without other signs of neurological damage may be a marker for cognitive deficits during childhood. Such infants need to be examined and followed up more intensively.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1996

Bases for maternal perceptions of infant crying and colic behaviour.

According to the commonest definition, infant colic is distinguished by crying which is 'paroxysmal'-that is, intense and different in type from normal fussing and crying. To test this, maternal reports of the distress type of 67 infants whose fuss/crying usually exceeded three hours a day ('persistent criers') were scrutinised using 24 hour audiorecordings of the infants' distressed vocalisation. 'Moderate criers' (n = 55) and 'evening criers' (n = 38) were also assessed. Most of the distress in all three groups was fussing. In the audiorecordings the persistent criers showed a higher crying: fussing ratio than the moderate criers, but intense crying was rare. A third of the persistent criers were reported by their mothers to have occasional, distinct colic bouts of 'intense, unsoothable crying and other behaviour, perhaps due to stomach or bowel pain.' In the audiorecordings these periods were longer, but not paroxysmal in onset or more intense than the crying of persistent criers not judged to have colic. The audible features of the crying may be less important than its unpredictable, prolonged, hard to soothe, and unexplained nature.

Circadian Rhythm↗

PubMed1997

An acoustic template of newborn infant crying.

The durational characteristics of 10 normal infant's complete crying episodes are reported. The cries of each child were audiorecorded at 2 days postpartum and acoustically analyzed for overall occurrence of expiratory cry segments, inspiratory cry segments, and nonphonatory 'pause' segments. In general, remarkable similarity was found across infants with regard to the distributional occurrence of the cry features. Discussion focuses on the organization of newborn infant crying behavior within the milieu of a crying episode, as well as the diagnostic implications of these findings.

Crying↗

PubMed1993

Pathological laughing and crying following stroke: validation of a measurement scale and a double-blind treatment study.

OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to test the reliability and validity of the Pathological Laughter and Crying Scale and the effectiveness of nortriptyline treatment for patients with emotional lability following stroke. METHOD: Eighty-two patients with ischemic brain injury-54 who had been hospitalized with acute stroke and 28 others who requested treatment for pathological laughing and crying--were given standardized psychiatric and neurological assessments and then administered the Pathological Laughter and Crying Scale. The 54 acute stroke patients were used to evaluate the Pathological Laughter and Crying Scale, and the 28 patients with pathological emotional display were randomly assigned to nortriptyline treatment or placebo in a 6-week double-blind trial to assess the efficacy of a tricyclic antidepressant in treatment of this disorder. RESULTS: The interrater reliability on the Pathological Laughter and Crying Scale for a subgroup of 15 patients was 0.93, and the test-retest reliability of the scale was excellent. After 4 and 6 weeks of treatment, scores on the Pathological Laughter and Crying Scale showed significantly greater improvement in the 14 patients given nortriptyline than in the 14 given placebo. Although almost one-half of these patients also had major depression, the improvement in emotional lability was independent of depression status. In addition, response to treatment was not significantly affected by lesion location or time since stroke. CONCLUSIONS: The severity of symptoms in pathological emotional display can be reliably quantified with the Pathological Laughter and Crying Scale, and treatment with nortriptyline can effectively ameliorate this emotional disorder.

Affective Symptoms↗

PubMed1993

Association of reported infant crying and maternal parenting stress.

Infant crying is a well-recognized source of parental concern and anxiety, but little is known about other possible effects of excessive crying on parents or caretakers. The objective of this descriptive study was to investigate the relationship between reported infant crying and parenting stress. Mothers, who were consecutively enrolled at the time of their infants' well-child checkups, reported the number of minutes their infant generally cried in a 24-hour day. Excessive crying was defined as more than three hours per 24-hour day. Seventy-five of 94 mothers subsequently completed the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) at their infant's 4- or 6-month checkup. Mothers who reported excessive crying were 5.7 times more likely to score high on the reinforcement subscale of the PSI. Although the direction of this association is not known, it indicates that mothers who report excessive crying are more likely than other mothers to perceive a lack of positive reinforcement from their infants.

Adult↗