000			02047caa a2200217 4500
008			210629s9999 xx 000 0 und d
022			_a1872-7972
100			_aDhatriS. Devaraju
245		0	_aGender-bias in the sensory representation of infant cry
260			_c2018
300			_a138-143
490			_vVolume 678
520			_aThe auditory neural pathway in females appears to be more sensitive to the cry of an infant (De Pisapia et al., 2013; Messina et al., 2016). Cortical responses in females have shown a distinct advantage compared to males in the auditory processing of infant cry. Such gender-bias in the cortical responses might emanate either at higher levels of processing such as cognitive and emotional processing or at the lower level representation of stimulus features. We assessed for a difference if any, between the two genders, in the sensory representation of an infant’s cry. We used frequency following responses (FFR) to assess the sensory representation of an infant cry. This was done in sixteen male and fifteen female non-parent adults. The FFR closely mimics the stimulus acoustics with fine temporal precision and is the measure of choice to assess the sensory encoding of sounds in the auditory system. We performed spectral analysis of the FFRs and compared the spectral magnitudes between males and females. We found significantly higher FFR spectral magnitudes in females compared to males. The gender differences found were not related to the confounding variables such as head size or differences in the volume-conducting media. By systematically controlling other influencing variables, we show that the bias in neural processing of infant cry in females emerges right at the sensory representation levels.
653			_aInfant cry, Frequency following response, Gender difference
700			_aAjith Kumar, U.
700			_aNike Gnanateja, G
700			_aSandeep Maruthy
773			_aNeuroscience Letters
856			_uhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2018.04.043
942			_cFJAS _yFJAS
999			_c18071 _d18071