Quel parent ne s\u2019est pas demand\u00e9 ce que disent les pleurs de son b\u00e9b\u00e9\u00a0? Alors que l\u2019on fait habituellement confiance \u00e0 un soi-disant \u00ab\u00a0instinct parental\u00a0\u00bb pour comprendre b\u00e9b\u00e9, une \u00e9tude d\u00e9montre que s\u2019\u00eatre d\u00e9j\u00e0 occup\u00e9 de b\u00e9b\u00e9s est pourtant indispensable pour interpr\u00e9ter correctement leurs pleurs. Ce r\u00e9sultat t\u00e9moigne combien l\u2019exp\u00e9rience fa\u00e7onne notre capacit\u00e9 \u00e0 d\u00e9coder les informations v\u00e9hicul\u00e9es par les signaux de communication des b\u00e9b\u00e9s, et de l\u2019importance de s\u2019entra\u00eener pour parvenir \u00e0 les comprendre. Cette \u00e9tude, qui vient d\u2019\u00eatre publi\u00e9e dans Current Biology, a \u00e9t\u00e9 men\u00e9e par des scientifiques de l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Saint-Etienne et de l\u2019Institut universitaire de France.<\/p>\n
“Nous avons constat\u00e9 que la capacit\u00e9 \u00e0 d\u00e9tecter la douleur exprim\u00e9e dans les pleurs est modul\u00e9e par l’exp\u00e9rience que l\u2019on a des b\u00e9b\u00e9s”, d\u00e9clare Nicolas Mathevon. “Les parents s\u2019occupant actuellement de jeunes b\u00e9b\u00e9s sont ainsi capables d\u2019identifier les pleurs de douleur d’un b\u00e9b\u00e9 m\u00eame s’ils n’ont jamais entendu ce b\u00e9b\u00e9 auparavant, alors que des personnes n\u2019ayant aucune exp\u00e9rience pr\u00e9alable des b\u00e9b\u00e9s en sont g\u00e9n\u00e9ralement incapables.”<\/p>\n
Nicolas Mathevon et ses coll\u00e8gues de l’Universit\u00e9 de Saint-\u00c9tienne (Silo\u00e9 Corvin, Camille Fauchon, Roland Peyron et David Reby) ont fait cette d\u00e9couverte dans le cadre d’un programme de recherche visant \u00e0 d\u00e9terminer comment les informations sont encod\u00e9es dans les pleurs des b\u00e9b\u00e9s et comment les adultes les extraient. Dans cette \u00e9tude, ils ont voulu d\u00e9terminer comment une exp\u00e9rience pr\u00e9alable des b\u00e9b\u00e9s influe sur la capacit\u00e9 \u00e0 identifier les moments o\u00f9 ils souffrent.<\/p>\n
Ils ont recrut\u00e9 des personnes ayant une exp\u00e9rience variable des b\u00e9b\u00e9s, depuis des personnes sans aucune exp\u00e9rience jusqu\u2019\u00e0 des parents de jeunes b\u00e9b\u00e9s. Ils ont \u00e9galement inclus des personnes ayant une exp\u00e9rience occasionnelle du baby-sitting et des non-parents ayant une exp\u00e9rience professionnelle de soins aux b\u00e9b\u00e9s.<\/p>\n
Ensuite, ils ont organis\u00e9 pour tous les participants et participantes une courte phase d’entra\u00eenement au cours de laquelle les gens entendaient huit pleurs d’inconfort d’un b\u00e9b\u00e9 donn\u00e9. Ensuite, leur capacit\u00e9 \u00e0 d\u00e9coder les pleurs de ce m\u00eame b\u00e9b\u00e9 et ceux d\u2019un b\u00e9b\u00e9 inconnu comme \u00e9tant des pleurs d’inconfort ou de douleur a \u00e9t\u00e9 mise \u00e0 l’\u00e9preuve.<\/p>\n
L’exp\u00e9rience \u00e9tait d\u00e9terminante\u00a0: les personnes ayant peu ou pas d’exp\u00e9rience ont class\u00e9 les pleurs au hasard, sans pouvoir identifier avec certitude lesquels signifiaient la douleur. Ceux qui avaient un peu d’exp\u00e9rience des b\u00e9b\u00e9s ont fait l\u00e9g\u00e8rement mieux. Les parents de grands enfants et les professionnels des b\u00e9b\u00e9s ont su identifier les pleurs d\u2019inconfort et de douleur du b\u00e9b\u00e9 avec lequel ils avaient \u00e9t\u00e9 entrain\u00e9. Les grands gagnants ont \u00e9t\u00e9 les parents de jeunes b\u00e9b\u00e9s : ils ont \u00e9t\u00e9 capables d’identifier les pleurs des b\u00e9b\u00e9s connus comme inconnus\u00a0!<\/p>\n
Les r\u00e9sultats montrent que les pleurs des b\u00e9b\u00e9s contiennent des informations importantes qui sont cod\u00e9es dans leur structure acoustique. Si les adultes sont sensibles \u00e0 ces informations, notre capacit\u00e9 \u00e0 les d\u00e9coder et \u00e0 identifier la douleur d’un b\u00e9b\u00e9 s’am\u00e9liore avec l’exposition et l’exp\u00e9rience.<\/p>\n
Les scientifiques esp\u00e8rent que le fait d’en savoir plus sur la fa\u00e7on dont les b\u00e9b\u00e9s communiquent la douleur pourra aider les parents \u00e0 apprendre \u00e0 la reconna\u00eetre et \u00e0 y r\u00e9pondre encore mieux. Ils m\u00e8nent actuellement des \u00e9tudes de neuro-imagerie afin d’explorer plus avant la mani\u00e8re dont l’exp\u00e9rience et la parentalit\u00e9 influencent l’activit\u00e9 c\u00e9r\u00e9brale lorsque les b\u00e9b\u00e9s pleurent.<\/p>\n
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English summary: Deciphering a Babies Cries of Discomfort vs. Pain Comes with Experience<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Every parent has wondered what their crying baby is saying. While we usually rely on a so-called “parenting instinct” to understand our babies, a study shows that having cared for babies is a prerequisite for correctly interpreting their cries. The result shows how experience shapes our ability to decode the information conveyed by babies’ communication signals, and how important it is to train to understand them. This study, which has just been published in Current Biology, was conducted by scientists from the University of Saint-Etienne and the Institut Universitaire de France.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe found that the ability to detect pain in cries\u2014that is, to identify a pain cry from a mere discomfort cry\u2014is modulated by experience of caring for babies,\u201d said Nicolas Mathevon. \u201cCurrent parents of young babies can identify a baby\u2019s pain cries even if they have never heard this baby before, whereas inexperienced individuals are typically unable to do so.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The findings show that human\u2019s ability to interpret babies\u2019 cries isn\u2019t innate but learned from experience. Parenting young babies shapes our ability to decode the information conveyed by babies\u2019 communication signals.<\/em><\/p>\n Mathevon and his University of Saint-Etienne colleagues (Silo\u00e9 Corvin, Camille Fauchon, Roland Peyron and David Reby) made this discovery as part of a broader research program investigating how information is encoded in babies\u2019 cries and how human listeners extract this information. In the new study, they wanted to find out how prior caregiving experience with babies shaped the ability to identify when they were in pain.<\/em><\/p>\n They recruited people with different amounts of experience caring for babies, ranging from people with no experience at all to current parents of young children. They also included people with occasional experience babysitting and non-parents with more extensive professional experience in caregiving. Next, they gave everyone in the study a short training phase in which they heard eight discomfort cries from one baby over a couple of days. Next, their ability to decode the cries as discomfort or pain was put to the test.<\/em><\/p>\n And it turned out that experience was everything. People with little to no experience couldn\u2019t tell the difference between cries any better than chance. Those with a small amount of experience performed slightly better. Current parents and professionals did better than chance. But parents of younger babies were the clear winners. They were able to identify the crying contexts of babies even when they\u2019d never heard the cries of that youngster before. Parents of older kids and those with professional experience didn\u2019t do well with unfamiliar cries.<\/em><\/p>\n The findings show that babies\u2019 cries contain important information that\u2019s encoded in their acoustic structure. While adults are attuned to that information, our ability to decode it and identify when a baby is in pain, gets better with exposure and experience.<\/em><\/p>\n The researchers hope that learning more about how babies communicate pain may help parents learn how to recognize and respond to it even better. They\u2019re now conducting neuroimaging studies to further explore how\u00a0experience and parenthood shape brain activity when babies cry.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n Corvin S, Fauchon C, Peyron R, Reby D, Mathevon N, 2022. Adults learn to identify pain in babies\u2019 cries. Current Biology, 32:R807-R827.<\/p>\n Other publications from the Baby cry project:<\/p>\n Bouchet H, Plat A, Levrero F, Reby D, Patural H, Mathevon N, 2020. Baby cry recognition is independent of motherhood but improved by experience and exposure. Proceedings Royal Society London B, 287:20192499.<\/p>\n Levr\u00e9ro F, Mathevon N, Pisanski K, Gustafsson E, Reby D, 2018. The pitch of babies\u2019 cries predicts their voice pitch at age five. Biology Letters, 14:20180065.<\/p>\n Koutseff A, Reby D, Martin O, Levr\u00e9ro F, Patural H, Mathevon N, 2018. The acoustic space of pain: Cries as indicators of distress recovering dynamics in preverbal infants. Bioacoustics, 27:313-325.<\/p>\n Reby D, Levr\u00e9ro F, Gustafsson E, Mathevon N, 2016. Sex stereotypes influence adults\u2019 perception of babies\u2019 cries. BMC Psychology, 4:19.<\/p>\n Gustafsson E, Levrero F, Reby D, Mathevon N, 2013. Fathers are just as good as mothers at recognizing the cries of their baby. Nature Communications 4:1698.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Contact :<\/strong><\/p>\n