Infant pain vs. pain with parental suppression: Immediate and enduring impact on brain, pain and affect.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In the short term, parental presence while a human infant is in pain buffers the immediate pain responses, although emerging evidence suggests repeated social buffering of pain may have untoward long-term effects.

Methods/finding

To explore the short- and long-term impacts of social buffering of pain, we first measured the infant rat pup's [postnatal day (PN) 8, or 12] response to mild tail shock with the mother present compared to shock alone or no shock. Shock with the mother reduced pain-related behavioral activation and USVs of pups at both ages and reduced Fos expression in the periaqueductal gray, hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, and the amygdala at PN12 only. At PN12, shock with the mother compared to shock alone differentially regulated expression of

SUBMITTER: Barr GA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10653509 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature