Lockhart-Bouron Marguerite, Anikin Andrey, Pisanski Katarzyna, Corvin Siloé, Cornec Clément, Papet Léo, Levréro Florence, Fauchon Camille, Patural Hugues, Reby David, Mathevon Nicolas
Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, SAINBIOSE Iaboratory, Inserm, University Hospital of Saint-Etienne, University of Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France.
ENES Bioacoustics Research Laboratory, CRNL, CNRS, Inserm, University of Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France.
Commun Psychol. 2023 Oct 2;1(1):26. doi: 10.1038/s44271-023-00022-z.
What information is encoded in the cries of human babies? While it is widely recognized that cries can encode distress levels, whether cries reliably encode the cause of crying remains disputed. Here, we collected 39201 cries from 24 babies recorded in their homes longitudinally, from 15 days to 3.5 months of age, a database we share publicly for reuse. Based on the parental action that stopped the crying, which matched the parental evaluation of cry cause in 75% of cases, each cry was classified as caused by discomfort, hunger, or isolation. Our analyses show that baby cries provide reliable information about age and identity. Baby voices become more tonal and less shrill with age, while individual acoustic signatures drift throughout the first months of life. In contrast, neither machine learning algorithms nor trained adult listeners can reliably recognize the causes of crying.
人类婴儿的哭声中编码了哪些信息？虽然人们普遍认为哭声可以编码痛苦程度，但哭声是否能可靠地编码哭泣的原因仍存在争议。在这里，我们纵向收集了24名婴儿在家中从15天到3.5个月大时记录的39201次哭声，我们公开共享这个数据库以供再次使用。根据能止住哭声的家长行为（在75%的情况下与家长对哭声原因的评估相符），每次哭声被归类为由不适、饥饿或孤独引起。我们的分析表明，婴儿哭声提供了有关年龄和身份的可靠信息。随着年龄增长，婴儿的声音变得更有音调且不那么尖锐，而个体声学特征在生命的最初几个月会发生变化。相比之下，机器学习算法和经过训练的成年听众都无法可靠地识别哭泣的原因。
