Baby's Cry may be a Signal of Undetected Health Issues

Physicians can now analyze a baby's cry to find out whether it is suffering from any undiscovered injuries, developmental or neurological disorders thanks to a new tool developed by researchers at Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island in the US.

Stating that a baby's cry could be a �window to the brain', the researchers revealed that the tool breaks down the recorded baby cries into 12.5-millisecond frames and analyzes each frame for more than 80 parameters, including volume, voicing, and frequency characteristics, help shed light on a baby's health.

The researchers can then identify any neurological issues by using different pitches and acoustic features to check whether there is any change in the way a baby's vocal cords function. The study has been published in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research.

"There are lots of conditions that might manifest in differences in cry acoustics. For instance, babies with birth trauma or brain injury as a result of complications in pregnancy or birth or babies who are extremely premature can have ongoing medical effects. Cry analysis can be a non invasive way to get a measurement of these disruptions in the neurobiological and neurobehavioral systems in very young babies", Brown University's Stephen Sheinkopf said.



Source: Medindia