Although previous research with adult humans and nonhumans has suggested a relationship between sleep behavior and brain serotonin levels, no studies have been made of the relationship of normal children's or infants' sleep patterns to serotonin levels, tryptophan metabolism, or diet. This study investigates the relationship between dietary…

This study tested Salk's hypothesis that the human fetus is prenatally imprinted to the repetitive intermittent sound of the maternal heartbeat. The prediction that neonates would quiet most to their own mother's heart rate compared with the unfamiliar heart rate was not supported. (Author/CS)

In these two studies, neonatal oculomotor behavior was observed under various conditions of visual and auditory stimulation. Findings showed auditory and visual perception to be relatively independent during the neonatal period. (Author/JMB)

Evaluates infants less than 1 week of age in a habituation-recovery paradigm for evidence of ability to detect an invariant identity or nonidentity relationship between components of a visual stimulus. (Author/NH)

Seventy-five normal primipatous mothers less than 20 years old were videotaped with their normal infants for 10 minutes during 3 days following birth. No relationship was found between adolescent maternal age and the count of maternal behaviors. (Author/CL)

Using signal detectability theory, analysis was performed on auditory frequency sensitivity data obtained by Hutt et al, 1968, on human neonates. Reanalysis using 12 male infants confirms superiority of lower frequencies and square waves in provoking startles in neonates. No state of arousal effects were found on sensitivity. (JH)

Each year, state newborn screening programs test 4 million newborns for disorders that require early detection and treatment to prevent serious illness or death. The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) was asked to provide Congress with information on variations among state newborn screening programs. Based on surveys of such programs in all 50…

Infrared television recordings were made of newborns' visual activity under monocular and binocular viewing conditions. Out-of-control eye movements were substantially more frequent in the presence of uniform light fields than in darkness for both groups. A distinction between exogenous and endogenous control of eye movements in newborns is…

Thirty-one infants ages 8 to 16 days were shown a ball, a ball picture, and a homogeneous stimulus card. Infants' reaching behavior was scored for each of the stimuli according to the following: (1) lateral extension of arm, (2) arcing movement of arm toward midline, and (3) flexion of arm toward the upper half of the body. (Author/MP)

Results from one experiment indicated that the temporal pattern and spectral complexity of moderately intense auditory stimuli influenced cardiac responses in 24 alert newborns. A second study extended the temporal-pattern effect to other vowel stimuli in a no-delay discrimination paradigm. (Author/RH)

Tests newborns' ability to detect a dot with central vision and compares both the proportion of time the infants fixated centrally and the duration of each central fixation. Subjects were 46 newborns ranging in age from 1 to 7 days. (MP)

Argues for an interactionist model of the relation between cognition and motivation in early infancy. (Author/SS)

The capacity of newborn infants for smooth-pursuit eye movements in single-target tracking and in optokinetic nystagmus to a moving striped field was examined utilizing DC electrooculography. (JMB)

Results showed that concentrations of testosterone were significantly greater in the umbilical blood of newborn males than females. In both sexes, firstborns had significantly more progesterone and estrogens than later borns, and among males, firstborns had higher concentrations of testosterone. Temporal spacing of childbirths had greater effects…

Suggests toys and materials for changing the environment to keep babies interested in it. (CM)