ArticleCerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)2016
Evidence for a Caregiving Instinct: Rapid Differentiation of Infant from Adult Vocalizations Using Magnetoencephalography.
Article in Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Selective attenuation of neural responses to own infant's face in early motherhood: a longitudinal magnetoencephalography study.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Article
- The role of musical pitch in long-distance defensive signaling.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- Adapting to Changes in Communication: The Orbitofrontal Cortex in Language and Speech Processing.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Effectiveness of Child-rearing Information Booklet among Adolescent Mothers: A Quasi-experimental Non-equivalent Pre-test-Post-test Control Group Study.Acta medica Philippina · 2024Article
- The early adolescent brain on music: Analysis of functional dynamics reveals engagement of orbitofrontal cortex reward system.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Unraveling dyadic psycho-physiology of social presence between strangers during an audio drama - a signal-analysis approach.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Roughness perception: A multisensory/crossmodal perspective.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2022Review
- Nine Levels of Explanation : A Proposed Expansion of Tinbergen's Four-Level Framework for Understanding the Causes of Behavior.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2021Article
- Postpartum Gray Matter Changes in the Auditory Cortex.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
- Effects of visual attention modulation on dynamic functional connectivity during own-face viewing in body dysmorphic disorder.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Article
- The Soundscape of Neonatal Intensive Care: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Parents' Experience.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Relationship between oxytocin and maternal approach behaviors to infants' vocalizations.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2020Article
- The Power of Smiling: The Adult Brain Networks Underlying Learned Infant Emotionality.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2020Article
- Chronic trauma impairs the neural basis of empathy in mothers: Relations to parenting and children's empathic abilities.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2019Article
- Sensing emotion in voices: Negativity bias and gender differences in a validation study of the Oxford Vocal ('OxVoc') sounds database.Psychological assessment · 2017Article
- The Affective Core of Emotion: Linking Pleasure, Subjective Well-Being, and Optimal Metastability in the Brain.Emotion review : journal of the International Society for Research on Emotion · 2017Article
- Depression alters maternal extended amygdala response and functional connectivity during distress signals in attachment relationship.Behavioural brain research · 2017Article
- Duration of motherhood has incremental effects on mothers' neural processing of infant vocal cues: a neuroimaging study of women.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Attachment Avoidance Is Significantly Related to Attentional Preference for Infant Faces: Evidence from Eye Movement Data.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
- On Cuteness: Unlocking the Parental Brain and Beyond.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Crying is the most salient vocal signal of distress. The cries of a newborn infant alert adult listeners and often elicit caregiving behavior. For the parent, rapid responding to an infant in distress is an adaptive behavior, functioning to ensure offspring survival. The ability to react rapidly requires quick recognition and evaluation of stimuli followed by a co-ordinated motor response. Previous neuroimaging research has demonstrated early specialized activity in response to infant faces. Using magnetoencephalography, we found similarly early (100-200 ms) differences in neural responses to infant and adult cry vocalizations in auditory, emotional, and motor cortical brain regions. We propose that this early differential activity may help to rapidly identify infant cries and engage affective and motor neural circuitry to promote adaptive behavioral responding, before conscious awareness. These differences were observed in adults who were not parents, perhaps indicative of a universal brain-based "caregiving instinct."
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.