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Newborn Responses to Nonsignal Auditory Stimuli: I. Electroencephalographic Desynchronization
Author(s) -
Schaefer Arlene B.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1975.tb00001.x
Subject(s) - psychology , habituation , quiet , stimulus (psychology) , audiology , electroencephalography , stimulation , neuroscience , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , medicine , physics , quantum mechanics
There are suggestions in the literature that the electroencephalographic (EEG) desynchronization response is in the newborn's repertoire. The present investigation was designed to examine that possibility under stringent experimental conditions. Sixteen normal neonates were presented with a 1‐Sec pure tone or white noise during one episode of quiet sleep and one episode of active sleep. Flat activity during stimulated quiet sleep was compared with spontaneous periods of low voltage activity during a nonstimulated quiet sleep episode. Comparisons were also made between responses in quiet sleep with and without prior stimulation in active sleep. Habituation and dishabituation were studied by presenting the nonfamiliar stimulus after repetition of the original stimulus. Increased EEG desynchronization to stimulation was found but the response appears to be a complex function of the type of stimulus, recording location, stimulus repetition, and the prior experience variable. The results have implications for differential maturation of the brain, the perceptual capacities of the neonate, and the controversy over orientation in the newborn.