Non-nutritive sucking in great ape and human newborns.

Abstract

AbstractThe development of non‐nutritive sucking in chimpanzee, orangutan and human newborns was observed during the first days of life. The group of ten human subjects reliably increased their rate of sucking, time spent sucking, and number of sucks per ten‐minute testing session during days 1–4. Similarly, the group of four newborn chimpanzees demonstrated increases in these same measures. The data from the two orangutan subjects, although not statistically significant, were generally consistent with that of the other newborns.The stability of the sucking response and the pattern of sucking were the major apparent between‐species differences. The human newborns sucked in a stable pattern of bursts and pauses beginning on day 1, whereas the chimpanzee and orangutan subjects gradually developed a pattern of relatively continuous sucking.The disruptibility of the sucking response was tested using a five‐second auditory stimulus. Disruption occurred 58% for humans, 40% for chimpanzees, and 20% for orangutans. It was concluded that non‐nutritive sucking of great ape newborns is less distractible by external stimulation than that of human newborns. This apparent rigidity makes it a less useful dependent variable in studies of the sensory capacities of chimpanzee and orangutan newborns than was predicted.