In the adult human brain, the presence of a system matching the observation and the execution of actions is well established. This mechanism is thought to rely primarily on the contribution of so-called "mirror neurons", cells that are active when a specific gesture is executed as well as when it is seen or heard. Despite the wealth of evidence…

Although important for public health policy, ethnic/racial disparities have rarely been examined among families of young children with Down syndrome. This study compared 144 African-American mothers with 726 European-heritage mothers of newborns with Down syndrome using official birth records in one American state from 1990 through 2002; outcome…

Displaying no evidence of recognizing the axillary odors of their fathers, breastfed infants discriminated between their mother's axillary odor and odors produced by nonparturient or unfamiliar lactating females. Bottle-fed infants appeared unable to recognize the odor of their mother when presented along with odors from a nonparturient female or…

Investigated the influence of arousal level on visual preferences by observing the looking preferences of 12 full-term neonates twice; once before feeding while unswaddled and once after feeding while swaddled. (Author/RH)

The temporal organization of spontaneous movement in healthy, awake neonates was studied on the second or third day after birth. Movement was recorded using time lapse photography and quantified as a function of time. Evidence of intrinsic temporal organization among subjects was found. (MP)

To study sensitivity to radial location of an odor source, 20 human newborns, ranging from 16 to 130 hours of age, were presented with a small amount of ammonium hydorxide. (Author/JMB)

This retrospective study was conducted to examine the relationship between selected variables and performance on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). Data were collected from one hundred twenty graduates of a baccalaureate program; graduates completed either the traditional four-year track or an accelerated…

This study tested the effects of moderately intense square-wave tone on the nutritive sucking pattern of neonates. (Author/SB)

Results suggest that temporal summation of brief stimuli is deficient in neonates. When compared with adult data from an analogous study, results also suggest that the transient system is immature in infants and that this immaturity is expressed in different ways by startle amplitude, probability, and latency. (PCB)

In contrast with controls and newborn presented with static models, only newborn presented with dynamic models reproduced the models' actions at significant levels. Infants in the static condition fixated the experimenter longer than those in the dynamic one. Results are discussed in terms of neurophysiological findings concerning the control of…

Sixty primiparous parents recorded the questions asked when they telephoned others to announce their baby's birth. Eighty percent of the initial questions were about the baby's gender. Questions about mother's health and baby's characteristics typically were second and third, respectively. (Author/RH)

To clarify the role of the cerebral cortex in neonatal behavior, the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale--Kansas Revision was administered to a hydranencephalic infant. Extremely deviant responses on portions of the exam were found, including responses to items measuring response decrement and orientation. (Author/RH)

The temporal organization of neonatal nutritive sucking and heart rate were studied in two consecutive 4-minute periods to analyze the effects of two quantities of response-contingent fluid. Results are discussed in relation to the distinction between nutritive and nonnutritive sucking and effects of fluid sweetness. (Author/SB)

Results indicated that infants only 0.7 to 71 hours old can imitate adults' facial gestures (mouth opening and tongue protrusions). Three possible mechanisms underlying this early imitative behavior are suggested. (Author/MP)

Experiments investigated whether more elements in the upper part of a visual configuration influenced newborns' preference for face-like patterns. Findings indicated that newborns preferred nonface-like stimuli with more upper part elements over nonface-like stimuli with more lower elements, but did not prefer face-like over nonface-like stimuli…