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“Cry Baby”: Using Spectrographic Analysis to Assess Neonatal Health Status from an Infant’s Cry

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Advances in Speech Recognition

Abstract

Infant cry analysis is a multidisciplinary area of research incorporating­ ­pediatrics, neurology, physiology, engineering, developmental linguistics, and ­psychology. It has been proposed in the pediatric literature that the infant cry is a reflection of complex neurophysiologic functions and that analysis of the cry itself can be used to assess the status of the infant’s health. Given the diagnostic importance of infant cry, this chapter presents application of spectrographic analysis to the vocal sounds of an infant, comparing normal with abnormal infant cry. Drawing from a rich body of research on spectrographic analysis predominantly used for performance of speaker recognition, this chapter presents how such spectral features that are used to identify and verify speakers can be applied to assess the neonate’s health status, by comparing a normal to an abnormal cry. Ten distinct cry modes, viz., hyperphonation, dysphonation, inhalation, double harmonic break, trailing, vibration, weak vibration, flat, rising, and falling have been identified for normal infant cry and their spectrographic patterns were observed. This analysis was then extended to abnormal infant cry. It has been observed that the double harmonic break is more dominant for ­abnormal infant cry in cases of myalgia (muscular pain). The inhalation pattern is distinct for infants suffering from asthma or other respiratory ailments such as a cough or cold. For example, for the infant whose larynx is not well developed, the pitch harmonics are nearly absent. As such, there are no voicing or glottal vibrations in the cry signal. In addition, for infants with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE), there is an ­initial tendency of pitch harmonics­ to rise and then to be followed by a blurring of such ­harmonics. Finally, an infant cry classification system is analyzed by observing the nature of the optimal ­warping path in the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithm.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    SIDS-is a syndrome marked by the sudden death of an infant that is unexpected by history and remains unexplained after a thorough forensic autopsy, a detailed crime scene investigation, and an exploration of the medical history of the infant and family. SIDS was responsible for 0.543 deaths per 1,000 live births in the U.S. in 2005 [49,36,39,41]. According to a recent study, babies who die of SIDS have abnormalities in brain stem (the medulla oblongata) which helps in control functions like breathing (which in turn may affect infant cry), blood pressure, arousal and abnormalities in serotonin signaling. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), which funded the study, this finding is the strongest evidence to date that the structural difference in a specific part of the brain may contribute to the risk of SIDS [30,49]. Colton and Steinschneider analyzed cry of SIDS victim and correlated the cause of SIDS with relatively lower Fo, longer duration, lower formant frequencies and greater sound pressure level throughout the spectrum [6]. Corwin et. al. observed that infants whose first cries exhibited a high first formant were more likely to die of SIDS than infants whose first cries did not have this characteristics [5]. In a groundbreaking study of 74 larynges removed at death from children who died of SIDS reported by Harrison, it was observed that SIDS can be attributed to reduction in the subglottic area (particularly around the age of 3 months), which is potentially lethal. The reduction in subglottic airway is often secondary to an increase in mucus-secreting glands caused by an upper respiratory tract infection, all of which affects infant cry [15]. These pioneering studies indicate that the infants with SIDS have significant abnormalities in their cry signal and hence changes in spectral characteristics. Moreover, imagine a situation where an infant cry analyzer is developed to increase doctors’ confidence in making decisions about slow developing abnormalities in infants from their cry beforehand. In such cases, suitable steps in the form of drugs or therapy could be given to save the life of infant. In addition, the work on cry analysis of infants whose larynx is not fully developed (e.g. laryngomalacia) is scant. This present work may constitute a crucial step in filling this gap.

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Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank DA-IICT authorities for their kind support to carry out this research work. He would also like to thank Ms. Neeharika Buddha, Dr. B. V. Adinarayana (KGH, Visakhapatnam) and Prof. B. Yegnanarayana of IIIT Hyderabad for their kind help and cooperation during this work.

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  1. Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT), Gandhinagar, Gujarat, 382 007, India

    Hemant A. Patil (Assistant Professor)

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Correspondence to Hemant A. Patil .

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    Amy Neustein

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Patil, H.A. (2010). “Cry Baby”: Using Spectrographic Analysis to Assess Neonatal Health Status from an Infant’s Cry. In: Neustein, A. (eds) Advances in Speech Recognition. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5951-5_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5951-5_14

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