While prenatal drug exposure can lead to various complications for infants, diagnosing certain health defects that may not show up until later in life can be problematic, since the baby’s initial development is considered normal. A recent study conducted at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine has revealed an acoustic characteristic in the sound a baby makes while crying that could be used to identify complications of the nervous system caused by prenatal cocaine exposure. 
 
 "These findings are important because studies of prenatal drug exposure in humans are always limited by not knowing if infant nervous system damage was due to the effects of a specific drug, such as cocaine, or the effects of other associated factors, such as maternal depression, poor prenatal care, and other drug use, that are often linked with maternal drug use during pregnancy," Dr. Philip Sanford Zeskind, lead researcher at Levine Children's Hospital at Carolinas Medical Center in North Carolina, said in a statement. 
 
 Zeskind and his colleagues gathered data as part of a research initiative aimed toward understanding the effect drug abuse has on the mother child relationship, dubbed the Cocaine Affect Mother-Infant Dyads (CAMID). Evidence from previous research has shown that “hyperphonation,” a high-pitched spectral characteristic of an infant’s cry sound, could indicate nervous system damage caused by prenatal cocaine exposure. 
 
 The research team identified a spectral characteristic in the ultrasonic vocalizations of rat pups that were treated with prenatal cocaine exposure. This characteristic was similar to the pitch and acoustic structure of hyperphonation exhibited by infants who were exposed to cocaine during pregnancy. Even if a pediatric examination does not show any abnormalities, hyperphonation can still be a sign of health complications. 
 
 "The discovery of the similar spectral characteristic in rat pup vocalizations will allow for translational analyses that can be used to detect the isolated effects of cocaine or similar drugs on brain limbic mechanisms common to humans, rodents, and other mammals," Zeskind added. 
 
 According to the American Pregnancy Association, cocaine elimination in a fetus is a much slower process compared to adults, meaning cocaine stays in an infant’s system longer than it does in the mother. Infants exposed to cocaine during pregnancy have a higher risk of suffering from genital, kidneys, brain, and overall growth defects. Exposing an infant to cocaine in the later stages of pregnancy increases their risk of dependence and withdrawal symptoms, including tremors, sleeplessness, muscle spasms, and trouble eating. 
 
 Source: Zeskin P. PLOS ONE. 2014. 

 A new study conducted by University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers provides the first known evidence of how a similar acoustic characteristic in the cry sounds of human infants and rat pups may be used to detect the harmful effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on nervous system development. 
 
 "These findings are important because studies of prenatal drug exposure in humans are always limited by not knowing if infant nervous system damage was due to the effects of a specific drug, such as cocaine, or the effects of other associated factors, such as maternal depression, poor prenatal care and other drug use, that are often linked with maternal drug use during pregnancy," said Philip Sanford Zeskind, PhD, lead author of the study published October 22 in the journal PLOS ONE. 
 
 "The discovery of the similar spectral characteristic in rat pup vocalizations will allow for translational analyses that can be used to detect the isolated effects of cocaine or similar drugs on brain limbic mechanisms common to humans, rodents and other mammals," said Zeskind, a researcher at Levine Children's Hospital at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina and a research professor of psychology and pediatrics at UNC. 
 
 The study was conducted as part of the Cocaine Affects Mother-Infant Dyads (CAMID) research initiative. The CAMID project's principal investigator, Josephine M. Johns, PhD, professor of psychiatry and psychology at UNC, is a senior author of the PLOS ONE paper. The CAMID research group focuses on how drug abuse affects the mother infant dyad on multiple levels. The work is funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health. 
 
 Previous work by Zeskind and others has shown how a high-pitched spectral characteristic of the infant's cry sound called "hyperphonation" may show that a newborn infant has suffered nervous system damage due to prenatal drug exposures - even when the baby otherwise appears to be perfectly healthy by traditional pediatric examinations. 
 
 In addition to finding increased amounts of hyperphonation in the cries of human infants whose mothers used cocaine during pregnancy, the UNC researchers found a little known spectral characteristic, which is similar in pitch and acoustic structure to hyperphonation, to be in the ultrasonic vocalizations of rat pups that were treated with prenatal cocaine exposure. This paper is one of the first translational findings of similar drug exposure effects in human and rodent subjects and highlights the CAMID research efforts to bring basic laboratory and clinical research closer together to more quickly find target clinical interventions. 
 
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– A simple technique may help determine whether a baby was exposed to cocaine during pregnancy: Listen to her cry. It can be tough to diagnose babies with cocaine-linked health issues that may not appear until they're older, Medical Daily reports. But a baby who seems healthy may reveal through her cry that her nervous system has been affected by the drug, researchers at the University of North Carolina say via Eureka Alert. In their study, researchers found that the cries of both human infants and rat pups contain similar characteristics associated with a mother's prenatal cocaine use. The study focused on a high-pitched sound called hyperphonation, which is comparable in babies and rat pups exposed to the drug. The findings are helpful, says the study's lead author, because it can be difficult to tell whether nervous system damage is related specifically to cocaine or to other factors. The link to rat pup vocalizations will allow assessments "that can be used to detect the isolated effects of cocaine or similar drugs on brain limbic mechanisms common to humans, rodents, and other mammals," the lead researcher says. Maternal cocaine use can lead to problems with babies' brains, genitals, and kidneys, and they can experience withdrawal symptoms from the drug—though a recent study suggested exposure to crack may not be as dangerous as was thought.