Gender-related heart rate differences in human neonates

The aim of the present study was to examine gender-related differences in h eart rate of human neonates controlled for their behavior. Previous studies could not find any difference in male and female fetuses and newborns, alt hough this gender-dependent difference clearly exists in children and adult s. The heart rate of 99 newborns (47 girls and 52 boys) was measured with s imultaneous video recording of their behavior. Results proved that alert ne wborns showed the same difference as adults: boys had a significantly lower baseline heart rate than girls. This suggests that heart rate is gender-de pendent from birth onward.