title: Effects of sound frequency on behavioral and cardiac orienting in newborn and five-month-old infants.
abstract: Alert newborn and 5-month-old infants' responsivity to variations in spectral composition of a rattle sound was examined. Each child received four stimulus conditions: low-, mid-, and high-frequency bandpass-filtered rattles and an unfiltered broadband rattle. Stimuli were played through a single loudspeaker laterally positioned, and head orientation and cardiac responses to sound were recorded. Compared to other stimuli, the low-frequency sound elicited less head turning in both age groups, with this effect exaggerated in younger infants. Head orientation toward the mid-frequency, high-frequency, and broadband stimuli did not differ with age. For all conditions, latency and duration of newborns' head turning was longer than that of 5-month-olds. Newborns responded with cardiac deceleration only on trials when they failed to turn. When head turns occurred, an acceleratory cardiac response was obtained. Five-month-olds responded with reliable cardiac deceleration irrespective of head turning toward the sound. Heart rate change did not vary as a function of frequency at either age, suggesting that all stimuli were equally effective in eliciting the infant's attention.
mesh_terms: D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D009949:Orientation; D010898:Pitch Perception; D013017:Sound Localization