When a baby cries, its parents will check on it as soon as they can and make sure it is okay. According to a new study, a baby's cry can make adults react very quickly, even if they are not related to the baby.
Oxford University researchers used the classic game whack-a-mole （打地鼠） for the study.
Whack-a-mole requires people to hit one of nine (button). Players must react as quickly as they can to whichever of the buttons that lights up. It is a game that requires speed and accuracy （准确度）. The study invited 40 men and (woman) aged 19 to 59. Some of them had sons or daughters, although none of (they) children were babies. They played whack-a-mole after listening to different sounds, (include) the babies' crying, the crying of adults in trouble and bird songs (play) at a similar pitch （高音）to the babies' crying.
The volunteers' scores were (high) after listening to the sound of crying babies. Men and women had similar scores overall. The results showed that hearing a crying baby can trigger a reaction in adults.
"It's almost (possible) to ignore （忽视） crying babies planes. This is true even though there are so many other noises around," said Morten Kringel bach, the scientist led the study. He added that in the course of human evolution （进化） taking care of babies has always been important job for adults. When a baby is hungry, it will cry. As a result, human brains develop a special reaction to a baby's cry.
