A Physioacoustic Model of the Infant Cry

An Acoustic Template of Newborn Infant Crying

“…The remarkable similarity found across infants with regard to the distributional occurrence of various cry features may reflect a basic organizational response of the central nervous system which is common to all normal newborns [13]. Al though :t is compelling to offer detailed physi ological explanations for the observed pattern of occurrence for expiratory cries, inspiratory cries, and pauses across a crying episode, cau tion is warranted in the absence of more direct physiological measures of (sub/supra)-larvngeal behavior.…”

“…These 'old er' cries are thought to represent an integra tion of the child's physiological maturation and environmental experiences. As the ner vous system matures and the infant's environ ment becomes more complicated, the cry may no longer be reflex-like but may be the result of true volitional activity [13]. If the cries of older infants become increasingly volitional with increasing age, it is likely the acoustic composition of the crying episodes would be more different than alike.…”

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“…Nine variables were chosen for this analysis, based on their importance in the three component physioacoustic model of crying (Golub, 1980;Golub & Corwin, 1985). Three variables were chosen to reflect each of the three components of the physioacoustic model: subglottal (respirato y) processes were indexed by (1) final slope of F,,, Foslp, (2) minimum value of Fo, Fomin, and (3) maximum value of F,,, Fomax, glutfat processes were indexed by (4) number of stops, Stops, (5) standard deviation of Fo, Fosd, and (6) percent of dysphonation in the cry, Dysph; finally, supraglottal processes were indexed by (7) proportion of energy from 1 to 2 kHz, Pp2, (8) proportion of energy from 2 to 3 kHz, Pp3, and (9) proportion of total energy from 3 to 4 kHz, Pp4.…”

Changes in Infants' Cries as a Function of Time in a Cry Bout

“…To organize the analyses, these 24 parameters were divided into four sets (Table l), based on the focal acoustic feature (e.g., fundamental frequency versus peak frequency). These particular acoustic features include ones that have been found to relate to caregivers' perceptions, to eliciting stimuli, and /or to CNS impairment-especially Fo, energy above 2 kHz, duration, and amount of dysphonation ( e g , Corwin et al, 1992;Golub & Corwin, 1985;Gustafson & Green, 1989;Michelsson, 1980).…”

“…We perform the analyses in a relatively large sample of infants and examine not only changes in the means of the acoustic parameters over time, but also changes in the variances and covariances. Finally, Golub's physioacoustic model (Golub, 1980;Golub & Corwin, 1985) is used as a guide to selecting and interpreting changes in the interrelations of acoustic measures over time. The physioacoustic model posits that CNS control over the muscles of the vocal tract can be divided into three levels-upper, middle, and lower.…”