Atypical cry acoustics in 6-month-old infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder.
This study examined differences in acoustic characteristics of infant cries in a sample of babies at risk for autism and a low-risk comparison group. Cry samples derived from vocal recordings of 6-month-old infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 21) and low-risk infants (n = 18) were subjected to acoustic analyses using analysis software designed for this purpose. Cries were categorized as either pain-related or non-pain-related based on videotape coding. At-risk infants produced pain-related cries with higher and more variable fundamental frequency (F (0) ) than low-risk infants. At-risk infants later classified with ASD at 36 months had among the highest F (0) values for both types of cries and produced cries that were more poorly phonated than those of nonautistic infants, reflecting cries that were less likely to be produced in a voiced mode. These results provide preliminary evidence that disruptions in cry acoustics may be part of an atypical vocal signature of autism in early life.
Departments of Psychiatry & Human Behavior and Pediatrics, Center for the Study of Children at Risk, Brown Alpert Medical School, Women & Infants Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island 02905, USA. Stephen_Sheinkopf@brown.edu
Stephen J
SJ
Sheinkopf
Jana M
JM
Iverson
Melissa L
ML
Rinaldi
Barry M
BM
Lester
D000162:Acoustics; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003448:Crying; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain; D010699:Phonation; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013018:Sound Spectrography