Ronald G. Barr

MDCM, FRCPC

Investigator Emeritus, BC Children's Hospital

My research interests center on the early developmental challenges of infancy, and how caregivers modify or support those challenges both behaviorally and physiologically during the early weeks and months of life. The outcomes of interest are behavioral state regulation (crying, awake alert and sleep), pain and stress experiences, and cognition and memory from the newborn period through the first year of life. Caregiver influences are assessed through contact (e.g. suckling, skin to skin contact, carrying and holding) and nutrient (e.g. feeding, breast milk, carbohydrates such as sucrose) interactions, and their combination. These "co-regulatory" processes are studied in the laboratory and in the community in the homes of the infants, using direct observation, experiential sampling methodologies (behavioral diaries), orientation-habituation procedures, and noninvasive physiological measures (e.g. salivary cortisol, cardiovascular responses). The laboratory results are applied to clinical (infant colic, procedural pain reduction) and prevention programs (prevention of shaken baby syndrome).In recent years, interest has focused on infant abuse prevention, using previous results to develop transnational prevention materials to prevent abusive head trauma/shaken baby syndrome.