First infant MRI study
finds babies feel pain 'like adults'
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[April 21, 2015] By
Kate Kelland
LONDON (Reuters) - The brains of babies
"light up" in a similar way to adults when exposed to the same painful
stimulus, suggesting they feel pain much like adults do, researchers
said on Tuesday.
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In the first of its kind study using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),
scientists from Britain's Oxford University found that 18 of the 20
brain regions active in adults experiencing pain were also active in
babies.
Brain scans of the sleeping infants while they were subjected to
mild pokes on the bottom of their feet with a special rod --
creating a sensation "like being poked with a pencil" -- also showed
their brains had the same response to a slighter "poke" as adults
did to a stimulus four times as strong, suggesting babies have a
much lower pain threshold.
"Obviously babies can't tell us about their experience of pain and
it is difficult to infer pain from visual observations," said
Rebeccah Slater, a doctor at Oxford's pediatrics department who led
the study.
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"In fact some people have argued that babies' brains are not
developed enough for them to really feel pain... (yet) our study
provides the first really strong evidence this is not the case."
Even as recently as the 1980s it was common practice for babies
undergoing surgery to be given neuromuscular blocks but no pain
relief medication.
Last year, a review of neonatal pain management in intensive care
found that although these babies experience an average of 11 painful
procedures per day, 60 percent do not receive any kind of pain
medication.
"Our study suggests that not only do babies experience pain but they
may be more sensitive to it than adults," Slater said. "If we would
provide pain relief for an older child undergoing a procedure, then
we should look at giving pain relief to an infant."
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The research looked at 10 healthy babies aged between one and six
days and 10 healthy adults aged 23 to 36. During the study the
babies, accompanied by their parents and by doctors, were put in an
MRI scanner where most of them fell asleep.
MRI brain scans were then taken as the babies were poked on the
bottom of their feet, and compared with scans of adults exposed to
the same stimulus. The findings were published in the journal eLife.
(Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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