Nociceptive Cortical Activity Is Dissociated from Nociceptive Behavior in Newborn Human Infants under Stress.

ABSTRACT: Newborn infants display strong nociceptive behavior in response to tissue damaging stimuli, and this is accompanied by nociceptive activity generated in subcortical and cortical areas of the brain [1, 2]. In the absence of verbal report, these nociceptive responses are used as measures of pain sensation in newborn humans, as they are in animals [3, 4]. However, many infants are raised in a physiologically stressful environment, and little is known about the effect of background levels of stress upon their pain responses. In adults, acute physiological stress causes hyperalgesia [5-7], and increased background stress increases pain [8-10], but these data cannot necessarily be extrapolated to infants. Here we have simultaneously measured nociceptive behavior, brain activity, and levels of ph

SUBMITTER: Jones L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5742634 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature