Carlo V. Bellieni (Siena, Italy, 1962- ) is an Italian

neonatologist Neonatology is a subspecialty of pediatrics that consists of the medical care of newborn infants, especially the ill or premature newborn. It is a hospital-based specialty, and is usually practised in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). The ...

and a

bioethicist Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, med ...

. He served as Secretary of the Bioethics Committee of the Italian Pediatrics Society. He is also a member of the ethical board of the Siena Biotech research facility, and of the Ethical Board of the

Siena University Hospital Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

, where he directs the neonatal intensive therapy unit. He follows the empirical approach in bioethics. According to his studies, an ethical approach includes three main points: realism, reason, and empathy. Bellieni is the author of many clinical research papers in international scientific journals, including studies on electromagnetic emission from neonatal incubators and on pain in children, and has written several books in Italian, Spanish, French, and English on neonatal pain and

bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, med ...

Studies on infants' pain

He created and developed a new method of nonpharmacological analgesia called "sensorial saturation", based on the simultaneous administration of gentle stimuli (touch, taste and voice) to the baby during a painful procedure, reported among the most effective for

pain in babies Pain in babies, and whether babies feel pain, has been a large subject of debate within the medical profession for centuries. Prior to the late nineteenth century it was generally considered that babies Threshold of pain, hurt more easily than a ...

. Bellieni also performed studies on babies' crying, developing a pain scale based on the acoustical analysis of crying.

Studies on human crying and weeping

Neonatal crying analysis: Bellieni performed several analyses on babies' crying and showed that it is not useful to detect the cause that provoked it; nonetheless, it contain a sort of

protolanguage In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unattes ...

, namely the patterns of crying change dramatically when it exceeds a certain

pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...

threshold. Meaning of weeping: Bellieni analysed the weeping behavior and concluded that most animals can cry but only humans have psychoemotional shedding of

tears Tears are a clear liquid secreted by the lacrimal glands (tear gland) found in the eyes of all land mammals. Tears are made up of water, electrolytes, proteins, lipids, and mucins that form layers on the surface of eyes. The different types of ...

, also known as “weeping”. Weeping is a behavior that induces empathy perhaps with the mediation of the mirror neurons network, and influences the mood through the release of hormones elicited by the massage effect made by the tears on the cheeks, or through the relief of the sobbing rhythm.

Laughter

Human laughter: Laughter is a form of alarm siren, that informs bystanders that a worrying event is now over. The characteristic worrying event, according to his studies, is finding a stiff behavior in a fluid, alive one: it is this contrast that freightens us, and finding it resolved is a sudden joy that should be communicated to others. Laughter is rhythmic because it should have the features of a real alarm siren, to share this ceased alarm.

References

External links

Italian Pediatrics Society

Scienza e Vita

Siena Biotech
1962 births Living people {{italy-scientist-stub