Do Expectant Mothers Exhibit Different Autonomic Responses to the Infant Cry Stimuli at Home Versus in the Laboratory?

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced challenges for keeping participants and research assistants safe during laboratory visits. One solution was administering research assessments in the participant's home via an online platform, despite limited evidence of whether online tasks have similar effects as laboratory contexts. The present study compares physiological responses to a virtual adaptation of an infant cry stimulus-which is commonly used to evoke and measure autonomic nervous system responses among pregnant individuals-to a traditional laboratory-based cry task. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), electrodermal activity (EDA), and heart rate (HR) were collected during infant cry presentation from 120 pregnant women in their third trimester. Half of the participants observed the infant cry stimulus in the laboratory before the pandemic, and the other half had the task delivered remotely using online teleconferencing technology in their homes. Results revealed that EDA increased and RSA decreased in response to the infant cry stimulus. HR did not significantly change from baseline to the infant cry stimulus. Importantly, whether the participants watched the infant cry stimulus at home versus in the laboratory did not affect their autonomic responses to the stimulus. These results demonstrate the ability of remote tasks to elicit an attachment-relevant stress response in pregnant women for remote data collection.