Related Experiment Videos
Obstetrical medication and the human newborn: the influence of alphaprodine hydrochloride on visual behaviour
1Department of Psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. Johns.
The visual habituation of two groups of newborn infants was tested at a mean age of 2.9 days with large achromatic squares of varying luminance. Mothers of the infants in one group received no medication during labour; mothers in the second group received a single dose of the synthetic narcotic alphaprodine hydrochloride. The two groups did not differ in the number of trials to reach the criterion, but newborns in the no-medication group fixated the stimuli for much longer periods than did infants in the alphaprodine group. First-fixation times of babies in the alphaprodine group were shorter when drug-to-delivery intervals were longer. These results, although tentative, imply that babies of medicated and unmedicated mothers differ in the manner in which they respond to visual stimuli.
The visual habituation of two groups of newborn infants was tested at a mean age of 2.9 days with large achromatic squares of varying luminance. Mothers of the infants in one group received no medication during labour; mothers in the second group received a single dose of the synthetic narcotic alphaprodine hydrochloride. The two groups did not differ in the number of trials to reach the criterion, but newborns in the no-medication group fixated the stimuli for much longer periods than did infants in the alphaprodine group. First-fixation times of babies in the alphaprodine group were shorter when drug-to-delivery intervals were longer. These results, although tentative, imply that babies of medicated and unmedicated mothers differ in the manner in which they respond to visual stimuli.