Perception of Baby's Painful Cry in fMRI

Perception of Baby's Painful Cry: Investigation in fMRI to Neuronal Activity Related to Empathy in Adults

Crying is the primary signaling strategy available to the human newborn for eliciting parental care. Yet, the investigators only have superficial understanding of the information carried by cries, and how this information is perceived by parents. Using modern tools of sound processing and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiment, this study aims to investigate cry-induced brain activation in adult depending on the cry's acoustic properties expressing various degrees of stress and distress levels. For that, Adults will be tested inside a fMRI magnet to determine their brain activations elicited by different babies cries according to whether the cry was evoked in a pain situation or not. The cerebral activity will be investigated in relation to acoustic features of cries (e.g. with pitch and/or roughness variations). To test if the gender or parentally of adult listeners influence their perceptions and brain responses, the task will be applied to 2 different groups (men and women not-parents). The hypothesis is that the brain of adult listeners will be able to discriminate adequately the intensity of the pain mediated by the cries. This process should involve brain areas such as the insular and the orbito frontal cortex that are known to participate in the integration of pain intensity and pain controls. The experiment should also determine which one of the acoustic features is able to transmit pain and to recruit brain areas involved in pain processes.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Neuronal Activity
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 80
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Saint-Etienne, France, 42055
    • Service de Neurologie - CHU de Saint-Etienne

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 50 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Man or woman aged between 18 and 50
• Contact-less with children
• right-handed
• Giving their written informed consent
• Subject who agreed to communicate MRI results to their attending physician
• French Social Security affiliation

Exclusion Criteria:

• any contraindications to pass an fMRI test
• Pregnant woman

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Men contact-less with children; functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).	Other: functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI); During fMRI, healthy volunteers will listen 80 baby's cry.; Other Names: fMRI
Experimental: Women contact-less with children; functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).	Other: functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI); During fMRI, healthy volunteers will listen 80 baby's cry.; Other Names: fMRI
Experimental: Father contact-less with children; functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).	Other: functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI); During fMRI, healthy volunteers will listen 80 baby's cry.; Other Names: fMRI
Experimental: Mother contact-less with children; functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).	Other: functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI); During fMRI, healthy volunteers will listen 80 baby's cry.; Other Names: fMRI

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
BOLD (blood-oxygen-level dependent) -contrast imaging	Measure of blood-oxygen-level dependent with fMRI during listening to natural crying.	at inclusion

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
BOLD (blood-oxygen-level dependent) -contrast imaging	Measure of blood-oxygen-level dependent with by fMRI during listening to artificial crying.	at inclusion
impact of gender and parenting on perception of baby's cry	Measure of blood-oxygen-level dependent with by fMRI during listening to artificial crying.	at inclusion

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint Etienne
• Collaborators: University Hospital of Saint-Etienne

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 24, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 5, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): July 5, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 15, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 15, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): June 16, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 10, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 9, 2018
• Last Verified: September 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: pain; neuroimaging; fMRI; brain responses; Baby cries
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1708071; ID-RCB (Other Identifier: 2026-A00289-42)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No