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Response to auditory stimuli in 6‐and 9‐week‐old human infants
Author(s) -
Brown James W.,
Leavitt Lewis A.,
Graham Frances K.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.420100309
Subject(s) - orienting response , audiology , psychology , startle response , eye movement , auditory stimuli , developmental psychology , medicine , neuroscience , habituation , perception
Response to 5‐sec, 75‐dB complex sounds was studied in groups of 24 infants each at 6 and 9 weeks of age. Under conditions appropriate for eliciting orienting, no significant cardiac response appeared at 6 weeks, but a significantly decelerative response did appear at 9 weeks. Measurement of noncardiac responses suggested that sucking suppression is also a component of orienting to sound, that the status of eye‐opening is equivocal, and that previously reported eye‐movement responses are probably a component of startle. We concluded that age changes in orienting may occur in young infants, even when state is controlled, and that the probability of orienting varies with the kind of stimuli employed.