Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/70656
Title: Responding to infant cry : uncovering the roles of gender and context on the central and peripheral nervous systems
Authors: Nur Atiqah Azhari
Rigo, Paola
Esposito, Gianluca
Keywords: DRNTU::Social sciences
DRNTU::Science
Issue Date: 2017
Abstract: Sensitive response to infant's needs is important in child development. Men and women differ in how they attend to infants, and context is essential in modulating attention to infant vocalizations. In this study, Near-infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) and Electrocardiogram (ECG) were utilized to investigate differences in peripheral and central nervous responses of men and women to baby laughter (BL) and infant cry (IC), when presented with different contextual stimuli: domestic environment (DE); outside the domestic environment (OE). From ECG findings: Only BL elicited increased sympathetic arousal in OE than DE condition, independent of attentional focus to context. From NIRS findings: Explicit attention to context extensively activated the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC), inferior frontal cortex (IFC) and frontal pole, especially in OE condition. Significant gender differences were observed in the OE condition, governed by the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and IFC. Specifically, men, but not women, exhibited greater right OFC activation to IC, and right IFC deactivation to female adult cry (AC). However, men displayed greater right IFC activation to AC in the DE than OE condition. These findings highlight the modulation of responses to salient vocalizations by gender, contextual information, and level of attention to the environment.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/70656
Schools: School of Biological Sciences 
Research Centres: Social Affective Neuroscience (SAN) Lab 
Rights: Nanyang Technological University
Fulltext Permission: restricted
Fulltext Availability: With Fulltext
Appears in Collections:SBS Student Reports (FYP/IA/PA/PI)

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