Dynamic behavior of the auditory N100 elicited by a baby's cry

We compared auditory N100 responses in female adults to two non-attended hu man sound stimuli. An infant's cry represented an unfamiliar, emotionally c olored sound and the Finnish word 'hei' (meaning 'hi') a familiar and emoti onally neutral sound. Both sounds elicited clear N100 responses over audito ry areas in both hemispheres. However, the dynamic behavior of the N100 res ponse following the first few repetitions of the sounds was significantly d ifferent. We observed faster habituation and longer response latencies, par ticularly over the ipsilateral hemisphere, during the first and second repe titions of the cry stimulus. This pattern may reflect an altered arousal le vel and slower, bilateral processing during the unfamiliar emotionally load ed cry as compared to the emotionally neutral word 'hei'. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.