Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Sezgi Goksan publishes her work in eLife, suggesting that functional connectivity within a specific neural network can help dampen newborn infants’ brain activity in response to pain.

Researchers from the Department of Paediatrics and Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging at the University of Oxford, UK, have identified the neural network that helps control babies’ brain activity in response to pain in a similar way to adults.

Their findings build on their previous study from 2015, which revealed that newborns experience pain like adults. Both papers are published in the journal eLife.

 

In our previous work, we used an imaging technique called functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to show that pain-related brain activity in newborn infants is similar to that observed in adults. We wanted to expand on this by investigating whether the functional network connectivity strength across the descending pain modulatory system (DPMS) in infants influences the magnitude of this brain activity. 
- Rebeccah Slater, Professor of Paediatric Neuroscience at the University of Oxford 

The DPMS is a network of brain regions which function together to regulate both sensory input to the central nervous system and behavioural responses to pain. To study the network’s influence on babies’ brain activity in response to pain, Slater and her team analysed fMRI data from 13 newborns, who were on average four days old and had been recruited from the Maternity Unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. 

In an identical study design to that of their previous work, the babies, accompanied by parents and clinical staff, were placed in an MRI scanner. Their brains were scanned as they were 'poked' lightly on the bottom of their feet with a special retracting rod. The scans showed that greater functional network connectivity across the DPMS led to lower brain activity in response to the stimulus, suggesting that the network can influence the magnitude of pain-related brain activity in babies.

 

 

In adults, greater activity in brain regions within the DPMS network, prior to a painful sensation, are coupled with lower behavioural pain reports. With this in mind, a possible interpretation of our results is that when regions within the DPMS are more strongly functionally connected in infants, they have a greater ability to regulate their pain experience and dampen the magnitude of their brain activity in response to stimuli – again in a similar way to adults. 
- Dr Sezgi Goksan, lead author  

Goksan adds that, to understand how the DPMS develops during early life, and how it is influenced by early-life experiences, further investigation of the network is required in both younger preterm infants and older infants. 

“It has, for example, been suggested that abnormal development of DPMS function in early life may lead to long-term vulnerability towards chronic pain states,” she says. “It would be interesting to study this further, partly as a way to explore what avenues might be open for developing effective interventions in future.”

 

 DPMS

References

The 2018 paper ‘The influence of the descending pain modulatory system on infant pain-related brain activity’ can be freely accessed online at https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.37125.

The 2015 paper, ‘fMRI reveals neural activity overlap between adult and infant pain’ can also be freely accessed online at https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06356.

 

This press release was prepared by eLife

eLife aims to help scientists accelerate discovery by operating a platform for research communication that encourages and recognises the most responsible behaviours in science. We publish important research in all areas of the life and biomedical sciences, including Neuroscience, which is selected and evaluated by working scientists and made freely available online without delay. eLife also invests in innovation through open source tool development to accelerate research communication and discovery. Our work is guided by the communities we serve. eLife is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, the Wellcome Trust and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. Learn more at https://elifesciences.org.

 

Similar stories

Research shows comforting babies eases parental stress in painful procedures

The Neuroimaging Group, at the Department of Paediatrics, in collaboration with Bliss, the charity for babies born premature or sick, has launched a new suite of information resources for parents of neo-nates, designed to make them feel more confident about being involved in the care of their babies.