{"id":221939,"date":"2025-09-16T03:23:44","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T08:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/the-sound-of-crying-babies-makes-our-faces-hotter-according-to-new-research"},"modified":"2025-09-16T03:23:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T08:23:44","slug":"the-sound-of-crying-babies-makes-our-faces-hotter-according-to-new-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/the-sound-of-crying-babies-makes-our-faces-hotter-according-to-new-research","title":{"rendered":"The sound of crying babies makes our faces hotter, according to new research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/the-sound-of-crying-babies-makes-our-faces-hotter-according-to-new-research2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hearing a baby cry can trigger a range of responses in adults, such as sympathy, anxiety and a strong urge to help. However, new research suggests that a deeper physical reaction is also occurring. A baby\u2019s cry, particularly if it is in pain or distress, makes our faces physically warmer.<\/p>\n<p>Since they can\u2019t speak yet, babies cry to communicate their needs, whether they\u2019re in pain or want some attention. When a baby is in distress, they forcefully contract their ribcage, which produces high-pressure air that causes their vocal cords to vibrate chaotically. This produces complex disharmonious sounds known as nonlinear phenomena (NLP).<\/p>\n<p>To study how adults respond to crying babies, scientists played 23 different recordings to 41 men and women with little to no experience with young infants. At the same time, a thermal infrared imaging camera measured subtle changes to their facial temperatures. A rise in temperature in this part of the body is governed by the <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/autonomic+nervous+system\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">autonomic nervous system<\/a>, a network of nerves that controls unconscious processes such as breathing and digestion. After each cry, the participants rated whether the baby was in discomfort or in pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hearing a baby cry can trigger a range of responses in adults, such as sympathy, anxiety and a strong urge to help. However, new research suggests that a deeper physical reaction is also occurring. A baby\u2019s cry, particularly if it is in pain or distress, makes our faces physically warmer. Since they can\u2019t speak yet, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-futurism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}