Old but attuned: the ability to decode babies’ cries does not decline with age

In most human societies, grandparents often provide substantial care and support for their grandchildren, including as babies. Given that previous studies have shown that ageing is accompanied by a gradual decline in our ability to identify other people's emotions, does age also reduce our skill at understanding a baby's cries? Here, we show that older people with experience of caring for babies remain able to correctly decode the information conveyed by babies' cries. The results of our psychoacoustic experiments underline that older people were at least as good as younger adults at identifying whether a baby is crying in pain or rather as a result of simple discomfort. These results are consistent with the notion that humans are cooperative breeders where older generations can effectively help younger ones with alloparental care. Favouring intergenerational solidarity is likely to simultaneously benefit the quality of life of young parents and older, knowledgeable carers.

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Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Biology Letters
Published
2025-02-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0667
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Infant Health and Development
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.02

Funders

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article

Old but attuned: the ability to decode babies’ cries does not decline with age

Nicolas Mathevon, Roland Peyron, Clément Cornec, Camille Fauchon et al.
1 citations
Biology Letters
Infant Health and Development
2.02
article

Old but attuned: the ability to decode babies’ cries does not decline with age

Nicolas Mathevon, Roland Peyron, Clément Cornec, Camille Fauchon, David Reby, Siloé Corvin
article en
1 citations

Abstract

In most human societies, grandparents often provide substantial care and support for their grandchildren, including as babies. Given that previous studies have shown that ageing is accompanied by a gradual decline in our ability to identify other people's emotions, does age also reduce our skill at understanding a baby's cries? Here, we show that older people with experience of caring for babies remain able to correctly decode the information conveyed by babies' cries. The results of our psychoacoustic experiments underline that older people were at least as good as younger adults at identifying whether a baby is crying in pain or rather as a result of simple discomfort. These results are consistent with the notion that humans are cooperative breeders where older generations can effectively help younger ones with alloparental care. Favouring intergenerational solidarity is likely to simultaneously benefit the quality of life of young parents and older, knowledgeable carers.

Biology LettersVol. 21(2)
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Inserm (FR), École Pratique des Hautes Études (FR), Institut Universitaire de France (FR), Université Clermont Auvergne (FR), Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (FR), Laboratoire Cognitions Humaine et Artificielle (FR), Interacoustics (Denmark) (DK)
Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, AXA Research Fund, Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Universitaire de France, Centre Lyonnais d'Acoustique, Université de Lyon
Openalex Percentile: Top 14%
Infant Health and Development
2.02
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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