Estimated cardiac vagal tone predicts fetal responses to mother's and stranger's voices.
Heart rate responses of 84 near-term fetuses to recorded female voices were examined in 166 trials of auditory stimulation. Each fetus was presented with a 2-min recording of their mother's voice and a 2-min recording of a female stranger's voice, in counterbalanced order, with a 10-min rest period between trials. High frequency heart rate variability during a 2-min baseline period was used to estimate cardiac vagal tone for each trial. Differential heart rate responses to familiar and unfamiliar voice recordings were observed during a 2-min poststimulus period, only when estimated cardiac vagal tone was high. This finding suggests that vagal tone plays a moderating role in the cardiac responses of term fetuses to familiar and unfamiliar stimuli.
Smith
Laura S
LS
Algonquin College, Room C230, 1385 Woodroffe Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2G 1V8. smithl@algonquincollege.com
Dmochowski
Pawel A
PA
Muir
Darwin W
DW
Kisilevsky
Barbara S
BS
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D015148:Cardiotocography / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005324:Fetal Movement; D006321:Heart / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D006340:Heart Rate, Fetal / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013637:Tape Recording; D013997:Time Factors; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000502:physiology*; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology*