Effects of auditory stimulation upon non-nutritive sucking by premature infants.
Changes in non-nutritive sucking contingent upon presentation of an auditory stimulus previously found capable of eliciting heart-rate acceleration was investigated in a sample of 24 premature infants. Across 30 10-sec. presentations of the stimulus, only transient changes in sucking rate during the first 6 trials were observed, and these effects obtained primarily for those infants showing few abnormalities in their non-nutritive sucking behavior. These results were discussed as reflecting possible differences in infants' attention associated with sucking pathology and the dependence of psychological assessment upon the specific response index used.
D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D011247:Pregnancy; D013391:Sucking Behavior / Q000502:physiology*