Unit on Developmental Neuroethology

Head: John D. Newman

Crying is a universal mammalian behavior in infancy and an essential signal that activates care-giving behavior. Little is known about the neural basis of crying or about why crying can be such a compelling stimulus to the listener. Our goals are to (1) determine the neural pathways that underlie cry production and cry perception; (2) track the developmental course of crying in infancy, particularly to determine the roles of inheritance and experience in individual variability in crying behavior; and (3) examine the interplay of cry acoustics and the hormonal and experiential status of care-givers in regulating the motivation to respond to a crying infant. Our approaches include behavioral experiments in nonhuman primates aimed at defining the critical features of infant crying that promote care-giving; acoustic analysis of cry sounds in the search for acoustic markers of developmental status, familial traits, environmental influences, and neurological risk factors; and functional neuroanatomical studies aimed at defining the neural populations activated during crying and cry perception.

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• E-Mail the Lab: newmanj@mail.nih.gov
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