Vincent R. Fisichelli

The cry thresholds of normal infants and those with brain damage: An aid in the early diagnosis of severe brain damage

A standardized program of successive painful stimuli was applied to nearly 300 children with the expectation that the vocal responses of normal subjects and of those with diffuse brain damage would differ significantly. Infants with diffuse brain damage require more stimulation to produce a standard 1 minute crying response than do normal infants. The efficiency of the technique varies between 74 and 83 per cent, depending upon the age level studied. Other criteria, e.g., shorter periods of crying, patterns of crying, etc., are being explored, particularly for infants under 4 days of age, in the hope of increasing the predictice efficiency of the method.

The cry latencies of normal infants and those with brain damage.

Cry latency is defined as the time which elapses between the moment of painful stimulation and the onset of crying. Latency determinations were made by a standardized program of stimulation on 117 normal infants and 69 infants who were suffering from brain disorders. It was possible to match 44 infants in each group for age and sex. Approximately 45 per cent of the matched abnormal infants and 46 per cent of the entire abnormal group gave no response at all to the first stimulus. Only 9 per cent of the normal infants in the matched group and 12 per cent of all normal infants failed to respond to the first stimulus. For those subjects who did respond with crying, the mean latency time of the normal matched group was 1.6 seconds and the mean of the abnormal matched group was 2.6 seconds. The difference was statistically reliable.

Frequency spectra of the cries of normal infants and those with Down’s Syndrome

Samples of tape recorded crying obtained from four male mongoloid infants six months of age, and four normal infants matched for age and sex were fed into the Panoramic Sonic Analyzer in order to survey the frequency (c. p. s.) content of the cries. While the frequency ranges did not differ for the two groups, the cries of the normal infants were richer in spectral content, more active, less variable in sound level and more homogeneous as a group than those of the mongoloid infants.

Weight differences between foster infants of overweight and nonoverweight foster mothers.

T H E E T I O L O G Y and treatment of excessive weight and obesity remain enigmas. Genetic and environmental factors both seem to be significant. Early feeding has recently been invoked as a significant factor in the development of obesity. 1-3 The clinical observation has been made by one of us (I. R. S.) that infants cared for by overweight foster mothers tend to be heavier than infants placed in homes of foster mothers who are not overweight. This study was undertaken to test this observation, which had been shared by several physicians, nurses, and social workers working in two adoption agencies located in New York City.

The effect of stimulus intensity on induced crying activity in the neonate

Cinical observation indicated not only that infants are more responsive to a more intense painful stimulus, but that there are individual differences in the degrees to which their reactions are heightened. A systematic analysis of this differential in responsivity may provide an additional diagnostic parameter in the study of differences in crying behavior between normal infants and those with brain damage.

SELF PERCEPTION IN OBESE ADOLESCENTS AS MEASURED BY HUMAN FIGURE DRAWINGS

There are a variety of physical, emotional and adjustment problems associated with obesity. This study was designed to explore the relationship between self perception and body image. The “Draw A Person Test” in which the human figure drawing is interpreted as a projection of the subjects self image was administered to 160 adolescents, half obese (more than 25 1bs. overweight by Standard Tables), and half normal in weight. Both groups were matched for sex and age. Patients with serious medical or psychiatric problems were excluded.The physical dimensions of the drawings were obtained by measuring height and width and obtaining a height-width ratio, which we have designated an obesity index. This serves as a relative measure of obesity in the drawing. The data was subjected to a three-factor analysis of variance for a) weight, b) sex and c) age.Statistically significant differences were found for weight and sex, but not for age. The weight by sex interaction approached statistical significance, but none of the remaining interactions were significant. The findings indicate that the obese male projects his obesity into his drawing whereas the obese female does so only minimally. We postulate both conscious and unconscious mechanisms contribute to this finding.