ArticleBiology letters2014
Sex hormone influence on human infants' sound characteristics: melody in spontaneous crying.
Article in Biology letters, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- From womb to words: the sex-specific interplay of fetal sex hormones and maternal mood on infant language development.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- Bilingual Exposure and Sex Shape Developmental Trajectories of Brain Responses to Speech-Sound Features in Infants.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Knowns and unknowns about the neurobiology of stuttering.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Effect of sex hormones on human voice physiology: from childhood to senescence.Hormones (Athens, Greece) · 2021Review
- Melody complexity of infants' cry and non-cry vocalisations increases across the first six months.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Auditory learning in an operant task with social reinforcement is dependent on neuroestrogen synthesis in the male songbird auditory cortex.Hormones and behavior · 2020Article
- Neuroestrogen synthesis modifies neural representations of learned song without altering vocal imitation in developing songbirds.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Neuroestrogens rapidly shape auditory circuits to support communication learning and perception: Evidence from songbirds.Hormones and behavior · 2018Review
- Comparing Postnatal Development of Gonadal Hormones and Associated Social Behaviors in Rats, Mice, and Humans.Endocrinology · 2018Review
- A Membrane G-Protein-Coupled Estrogen Receptor Is Necessary but Not Sufficient for Sex Differences in Zebra Finch Auditory Coding.Endocrinology · 2018Article
- Fundamental Frequency Variation of Neonatal Spontaneous Crying Predicts Language Acquisition in Preterm and Term Infants.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
- Sex stereotypes influence adults' perception of babies' cries.BMC psychology · 2016Article
- Sex differences and rapid estrogen signaling: A look at songbird audition.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2015Review
- Dynamic variation in forebrain estradiol levels during song learning.Developmental neurobiology · 2015Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The specific impact of sex hormones on brain development and acoustic communication is known from animal models. Sex steroid hormones secreted during early development play an essential role in hemispheric organization and the functional lateralization of the brain, e.g. language. In animals, these hormones are well-known regulators of vocal motor behaviour. Here, the association between melody properties of infants' sounds and serum concentrations of sex steroids was investigated. Spontaneous crying was sampled in 18 healthy infants, averaging two samples taken at four and eight weeks, respectively. Blood samples were taken within a day of the crying samples. The fundamental frequency contour (melody) was analysed quantitatively and the infants' frequency modulation skills expressed by a melody complexity index (MCI). These skills provide prosodic primitives for later language. A hierarchical, multiple regression approach revealed a significant, robust relationship between the individual MCIs and the unbound, bioactive fraction of oestradiol at four weeks as well as with the four-to-eight-week difference in androstenedione. No robust relationship was found between the MCI and testosterone. Our findings suggest that oestradiol may have effects on the development and function of the auditory-vocal system in human infants that are as powerful as those in vocal-learning animals.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.