In most of our social life we communicate and relate to others. Successful interpersonal relating is crucial to physical and mental well-being and growth. This study, using the still-face paradigm, demonstrates that even human neonates (n = 90, 3-96 hr after birth) adjust their behavior according to the social responsiveness of their interaction…

Studied hand-mouth coordination in 40 infants of 1-3 days. Sucrose solution was delivered intraorally every 2 minutes. Results provide evidence for sucrose as a calming agent and for a coordinative behavorial system that integrates hand-mouth activity in supine human infants. (RJC)

Links between neonatal biological rhythms and the emergence of interaction rhythms were examined in 3 groups (N=71): high-risk preterms (HR; birth weight less than 1,000 g), low-risk preterms (LR; birth weight=1,700-1,850 g), and full-term (FT) infants. Once a week for premature infants and on the 2nd day for FT infants, sleep-wake cyclicity was…

Ability of 26 newborns to imitate facial expressions was examined. When infants observed emotional facial expressions, they did not show imitative matching of the modeled expressions. However, when tongue protrusion was modeled, infants did produce the modeled gesture. (PCB)

Measures of active sleep, quiet sleep, sucking, crying, body size and gestational age were factor analyzed for 137 normal newborns at 2 days of age. The results yielded 3 stable factors: reactivity-irritability, maturity, and reflexive and discriminative sucking. (JMB)