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21/04/2015
A new study by Oxford University has suggested that babies can experience pain much like adults.
The research looked at 10 healthy babies aged between one and six days old and 10 healthy adults, between the ages of 23 and 36. The infants were recruited from the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, while the adult volunteers were Oxford University staff or students.
For the experiment, the babies were accompanied by their parents and clinical staff. They were placed in an MRI scanner, where they tended to fall asleep. Scans were then taken of the babies' brains as they were 'poked' on the bottom of their feet with a special retracting rod. The rod, while it did not wake the babies up, did create a mild sensation similar to being poked with a pencil'.
These scans were then compared to the scans of the adults' brains when exposed to the same pain stimulus.
It was discovered that 18 of the 20 brain regions active in adults experiencing pain were also active in babies. In act, the infants' brains had the same response to a weak 'poke' (of force 128mN) as adults did to a stimulus four times as strong (512mN). The team behind the study said this suggest that babies not only experience pain like adults, but they have a much lower pain threshold.
Lead author of the report, Dr Rebeccah Slater, Oxford University's Department of Paediatrics, explained: "Up until recently people didn't think it was possible to study pain in babies using MRI because, unlike adults, they dont keep still in the scanner. However, as babies that are less than a week old are more docile than older babies, we found that their parents were able to get them to fall asleep inside a scanner so that, for the first time, we could study pain in the infant brain using MRI.
"This is particularly important when it comes to pain: obviously babies can't tell us about their experience of pain and it is difficult to infer pain from visual observations. In fact some people have argued that babies' brains are not developed enough for them to really 'feel' pain, any reaction being just a reflex our study provides the first really strong evidence that this is not the case."
The researchers say that it is now possible to see pain 'happening' inside a baby's brain and it looks similar to pain adults also experience.
"Thousands of babies across the UK undergo painful procedures every day but there are often no local pain management guidelines to help clinicians," Dr Slater continued. "Our study suggests that not only do babies experience pain but they may be more sensitive to it than adults. We have to think that if we would provide pain relief for an older child undergoing a procedure then we should look at giving pain relief to an infant undergoing a similar procedure.
"Recent studies in adults have shown that it is possible to detect a neurological signature of pain using MRI. In the future we hope to develop similar systems to detect the 'pain signature' in babies' brains: this could enable us to test different pain relief treatments and see what would be most effective for this vulnerable population who can't speak for themselves."
Raliza Stoyanova, Wellcome Trust Science Portfolio Advisor, added: "This excellent study brings together developmental neuroscience and cutting-edge neuroimaging to advance our understanding of pain.
"The finding that similar brain networks are activated in babies exposed to pain stimuli, as those found in adults, suggests that babies may feel pain in a similar way and that we may need to re-think clinical guidelines for infants undergoing potentially painful procedures."
The study was funded by the Wellcome Trust and published in the journal eLife.
(JP)
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Babies Experience Pain Like Adults Study
A new study by Oxford University has suggested that babies can experience pain much like adults.
The research looked at 10 healthy babies aged between one and six days old and 10 healthy adults, between the ages of 23 and 36. The infants were recruited from the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, while the adult volunteers were Oxford University staff or students.
For the experiment, the babies were accompanied by their parents and clinical staff. They were placed in an MRI scanner, where they tended to fall asleep. Scans were then taken of the babies' brains as they were 'poked' on the bottom of their feet with a special retracting rod. The rod, while it did not wake the babies up, did create a mild sensation similar to being poked with a pencil'.
These scans were then compared to the scans of the adults' brains when exposed to the same pain stimulus.
It was discovered that 18 of the 20 brain regions active in adults experiencing pain were also active in babies. In act, the infants' brains had the same response to a weak 'poke' (of force 128mN) as adults did to a stimulus four times as strong (512mN). The team behind the study said this suggest that babies not only experience pain like adults, but they have a much lower pain threshold.
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Lead author of the report, Dr Rebeccah Slater, Oxford University's Department of Paediatrics, explained: "Up until recently people didn't think it was possible to study pain in babies using MRI because, unlike adults, they dont keep still in the scanner. However, as babies that are less than a week old are more docile than older babies, we found that their parents were able to get them to fall asleep inside a scanner so that, for the first time, we could study pain in the infant brain using MRI.
"This is particularly important when it comes to pain: obviously babies can't tell us about their experience of pain and it is difficult to infer pain from visual observations. In fact some people have argued that babies' brains are not developed enough for them to really 'feel' pain, any reaction being just a reflex our study provides the first really strong evidence that this is not the case."
The researchers say that it is now possible to see pain 'happening' inside a baby's brain and it looks similar to pain adults also experience.
"Thousands of babies across the UK undergo painful procedures every day but there are often no local pain management guidelines to help clinicians," Dr Slater continued. "Our study suggests that not only do babies experience pain but they may be more sensitive to it than adults. We have to think that if we would provide pain relief for an older child undergoing a procedure then we should look at giving pain relief to an infant undergoing a similar procedure.
"Recent studies in adults have shown that it is possible to detect a neurological signature of pain using MRI. In the future we hope to develop similar systems to detect the 'pain signature' in babies' brains: this could enable us to test different pain relief treatments and see what would be most effective for this vulnerable population who can't speak for themselves."
Raliza Stoyanova, Wellcome Trust Science Portfolio Advisor, added: "This excellent study brings together developmental neuroscience and cutting-edge neuroimaging to advance our understanding of pain.
"The finding that similar brain networks are activated in babies exposed to pain stimuli, as those found in adults, suggests that babies may feel pain in a similar way and that we may need to re-think clinical guidelines for infants undergoing potentially painful procedures."
The study was funded by the Wellcome Trust and published in the journal eLife.
(JP)
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