Hyperphonation Higher In Babies Whose Mothers Abused Drugs

A mother's diet and other habits can cause significant health issue before the baby is even born.

Recent findings published in the journal PLOS ONE reveal that babies with mothers who are abusing cocaine during pregnancy may be dealing with increased amounts of ‘hyperphonation' following birth. 

Previous studies indicate that "hyperphonation," or high-pitched spectral characteristifs of the infants cry, can actually signal the nervous system in newborns and result in prenatal drug exposures.

"These findings are important because studies of prenatal drug exposure in humans are always limited by not knowing if infant nervous system damage was due to the effects of a specific drug, such as cocaine, or the effects of other associated factors, such as maternal depression, poor prenatal care and other drug use, that are often linked with maternal drug use during pregnancy," said lead study author Philip Sanford Zeskind, PhD, of the University of North Carolina, in a news release.

"The discovery of the similar spectral characteristic in rat pup vocalizations will allow for translational analyses that can be used to detect the isolated effects of cocaine or similar drugs on brain limbic mechanisms common to humans, rodents and other mammals," added Zeskind, a researcher at Levine Children's Hospital at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina and a research professor of psychology and pediatrics at UNC.