Heart rate variations in five-month-old children during interactions in a controlled environment.

UNLABELLED: This paper reports the first data of a study on heart rate variations of 13 5-mo-old infants seated in special chairs. Their electrocardiograms and behaviour were continuously recorded during sessions that were set up with their mother and a mother-child dyad that they met for the first time when the first session was organized. The protocol comprised two interaction phases between the infants and their mothers and two with one another. The same pairs of mother-child dyads were studied a second time 1 wk later. During the first session, the infants' heart rate variability increased significantly from the mother-infant interaction phases to the infant-infant interaction phases. During the second session, the variability was higher during the mother-infant phases than in the corresponding phases of the first session. This could be linked to changes in the mothers' behaviour and the infants' idea and excitement of meeting the child from the first session again. However, the variability was significantly lower during the infant-infant phases than during the mother-infant phases and the corresponding infant-infant phases of the first session. This corresponds to the development of affiliative behaviours in the infants. CONCLUSION: When two 5-mo-old infants were seated by their mothers in special chairs, significant differences were observed in their heart rate variability when they became familiar with each other, whether they were interacting with their mothers or with one another.

An unusual surgical emergency: a knee joint wound caused by a needlefish.

The authors report the case of a knee joint wound caused by a needlefish of the Belonid type, or "Orphie." This observation is one of a series of 10 traumas reported over the past few years with this dangerous fish that resides in the New Caledonian lagoon. The authors show the importance of a thorough clinical examination of the patient and, more especially, the importance of the radiological opacity of the foreign body, which is essential for diagnosis. Our experience with this type of wound in articular disorders leads us to recommend arthroscopic treatment combined with intraoperative radiological control. This method is to assure the total exeresis of the foreign body whose sepsis would irremediably cause serious acute arthritis.

[Biofeedback of blood pressure information in man: changes in the electroencephalographic power spectrum]. / Biorétro-action de l'information "pression artérielle" chez l'homme: modifications des spectres de puissance de l'électroencéphalogramme.

Modifications of attention in cardiovascular field with the aim of a perceptive activity focused on a vegetative feature may include in man: a specific arousal component linked to significant visual information (blood pressure); an unspecific attention component (P300), obvious in modifications of averaged visual response in the same time to a background unsignificant stimulation.