Audio Feature Analysis for Acoustic Pain Detection in Term Newborns

Giordano V.a· Luister A.b· Reuter C.Czedik-Eysenberg I.c· Singer D.b· Steyrl D.Vettorazzi E.e· Deindl P.b

Author affiliations

aDivision of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Pediatric Intensive Care and Neuropediatrics, Comprehensive Center for Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
bDepartment of Neonatology and Pediatric Intensive Care Medicine, University Children’s Hospital, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
cMusicological Department, Musical Acoustics and Music Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
dDepartment of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
eInstitute of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

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Article / Publication Details

First-Page Preview

Abstract of Clinical Trials

Received: March 29, 2022
Accepted: July 22, 2022
Published online: September 16, 2022

Number of Print Pages: 9
Number of Figures: 4
Number of Tables: 1

ISSN: 1661-7800 (Print)
eISSN: 1661-7819 (Online)

For additional information: https://www.karger.com/NEO

Abstract

Introduction: Crying newborns signal a need or discomfort as part of the innate communication system. Exposure to pain is related to infants’ unfavorable neurodevelopmental outcomes. There is a tremendous need for more objective methods to assess neonatal pain. An audio analysis of acoustic utterances could provide specific information on the patient’s pain level. Methods: We analyzed 67 videos of 33 term-born newborns recorded during a planned capillary blood sample, including the stimuli, non-noxious thermal stimulus, short noxious stimulus, and prolonged unpleasant stimulus, between December 2020 and March 2021. Two expert raters evaluated the infants’ pain responses using the Neonatal Facial Coding System (NFCS). The mean values of 123 timbre features of the recorded audio data were analyzed by using specific toolboxes and libraries from the following programming environments: MIRtoolbox (MATLAB), MiningSuite (MATLAB), Essentia (Python), AudioCommons timbral models (Python), and Librosa (Python). Results: The NFCS values were significantly higher during the short noxious stimulus (p < 0.001) and prolonged unpleasant stimulus (p < 0.001) than during the non-noxious thermal stimulus, whereas NFCS values during the short noxious stimulus and prolonged unpleasant stimulus were similar (p = 0.79). Brightness, roughness, percussive energy, and attack times were identified as the features having the highest impact on the NFCS. Conclusion: This hypothesis-generating study identified several salient acoustic features highly associated with pain responses in term newborns. Our analysis is an encouraging starting point for the targeted analysis of pain-specific acoustic features of neonatal cries and vocalizations from the perspective of real-time acoustic processing.

© 2022 S. Karger AG, Basel

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First-Page Preview

Abstract of Clinical Trials

Received: March 29, 2022
Accepted: July 22, 2022
Published online: September 16, 2022

Number of Print Pages: 9
Number of Figures: 4
Number of Tables: 1

ISSN: 1661-7800 (Print)
eISSN: 1661-7819 (Online)

For additional information: https://www.karger.com/NEO

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