Sex hormone influence on human infants' sound characteristics: melody in spontaneous crying

The specific impact of sex hormones on brain development and acoustic communication is known from animal models. Sex steroid hormones secreted during early development play an essential role in hemispheric organization and the functional lateralization of the brain, e.g. language. In animals, these hormones are well-known regulators of vocal motor behaviour. Here, the association between melody properties of infants' sounds and serum concentrations of sex steroids was investigated. Spontaneous crying was sampled in 18 healthy infants, averaging two samples taken at four and eight weeks, respectively. Blood samples were taken within a day of the crying samples. The fundamental frequency contour (melody) was analysed quantitatively and the infants' frequency modulation skills expressed by a melody complexity index (MCI). These skills provide prosodic primitives for later language. A hierarchical, multiple regression approach revealed a significant, robust relationship between the individual MCIs and the unbound, bioactive fraction of oestradiol at four weeks as well as with the four-to-eight-week difference in androstenedione. No robust relationship was found between the MCI and testosterone. Our findings suggest that oestradiol may have effects on the development and function of the auditory-vocal system in human infants that are as powerful as those in vocal-learning animals.