Cracking the Code of Crying Babies: How Familiarity Changes the Interpretation of Cries

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Neuronal Activity; Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Interventions: Behavioral: inclusion and familiarization; Behavioral: fMRI acquisition and closure

• Registration Number: NCT05170178
• Lead Sponsor: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint Etienne

Brief Summary

Understanding babies' signals is essential to meet their needs. Recent works suggest that crying provides useful information, not only allowing parents to recognize their baby among others (static information), but also to distinguish between mild discomfort and pain cries (dynamic information). The perception of this information by adults involves a "parental" brain network including brain areas involved in empathy, attention, emotional regulation, motor as well as regions of the limbic system or associated with the reward network.

Detailed Description

This network is involved when listening to cries of familiar babies, or pain cries. How do we become specialist of a baby's cries? To date, no functional imaging study has examined the specific brain activations when listening to the cries of a familiar baby in different situations, particularly painful ones.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2021-12-22
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-12-22
• Study First Posted: 2021-12-27
• Study Start: 2022-06-30
• Primary Completion: 2023-04-26
• Study Completion: 2023-05-12
• Status Verified: 2023-06
• Last Update Submitted: 2023-08-03
• Last Update Posted: 2023-08-04

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 62

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Men with parental experience caring for infants	inclusion and familiarization	Men parent of a child under 2 years old
Women with professional experience in caring for infants	inclusion and familiarization	Women in daily contact with infants in professional circle (e.g., nannies, pediatricians, midwives, maternity nurses) without dependent children under 2 years old
Women with parental experience caring for infants	inclusion and familiarization	Women parent of a child under 2 years old
Women with parental experience caring for infants	fMRI acquisition and closure	Women parent of a child under 2 years old
Men with parental experience caring for infants	fMRI acquisition and closure	Men parent of a child under 2 years old
Women with professional experience in caring for infants	fMRI acquisition and closure	Women in daily contact with infants in professional circle (e.g., nannies, pediatricians, midwives, maternity nurses) without dependent children under 2 years old

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
BOLD signal (blood oxygen level-dependent)	during the whole listening session	Measurement of the BOLD signal by fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) in adults during listening to natural cries of a familiar baby and unknown babies, in two painful (vaccination) or non-painful (bath) situations.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
participants' sex	At the inclusion visit	Sex : Male or female
participants'experience at caring for babies	At the inclusion visit	Experience at caring for babies : Yes or No

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

HCL; 🇫🇷 Bron, France

Chu Saint-Etienne; 🇫🇷 Saint-etienne, France