ArticleBiology letters2025
Old but attuned: the ability to decode babies' cries does not decline with age.
Article in Biology letters, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Old but attuned: the ability to decode babies' cries does not decline with age.Biology letters · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In most human societies, grandparents often provide substantial care and support for their grandchildren, including as babies. Given that previous studies have shown that ageing is accompanied by a gradual decline in our ability to identify other people's emotions, does age also reduce our skill at understanding a baby's cries? Here, we show that older people with experience of caring for babies remain able to correctly decode the information conveyed by babies' cries. The results of our psychoacoustic experiments underline that older people were at least as good as younger adults at identifying whether a baby is crying in pain or rather as a result of simple discomfort. These results are consistent with the notion that humans are cooperative breeders where older generations can effectively help younger ones with alloparental care. Favouring intergenerational solidarity is likely to simultaneously benefit the quality of life of young parents and older, knowledgeable carers.
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