The cry sounds of 12 well-nourished and 12 malnourished male infants were compared using behavioral and acoustic measures. The cry of the malnourished infant had an initial longer sound, higher pitch, lower amplitude, more arrhythmia and a longer latency to the next cry sound than the cry of the well-nourished infant. The similarity between the cry of the malnourished infant and the cry of the brain-damaged infant suggested that malnutrition may affect the regulatory function of the CNS. This hypothesis was supported by additional findings which showed that the abnormal cry patterns in the malnourished infants were associated with a low-level orienting response to a pure tone stimulus as measured by the magnitude of heart-rate deceleration.