Goksan Sezgi, Hartley Caroline, Emery Faith, Cockrill Naomi, Poorun Ravi, Moultrie Fiona, Rogers Richard, Campbell Jon, Sanders Michael, Adams Eleri, Clare Stuart, Jenkinson Mark, Tracey Irene, Slater Rebeccah
Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Elife. 2015 Apr 21;4:e06356. doi: 10.7554/eLife.06356.
Limited understanding of infant pain has led to its lack of recognition in clinical practice. While the network of brain regions that encode the affective and sensory aspects of adult pain are well described, the brain structures involved in infant nociceptive processing are completely unknown, meaning we cannot infer anything about the nature of the infant pain experience. Using fMRI we identified the network of brain regions that are active following acute noxious stimulation in newborn infants, and compared the activity to that observed in adults. Significant infant brain activity was observed in 18 of the 20 active adult brain regions but not in the infant amygdala or orbitofrontal cortex. Brain regions that encode sensory and affective components of pain are active in infants, suggesting that the infant pain experience closely resembles that seen in adults. This highlights the importance of developing effective pain management strategies in this vulnerable population.
对婴儿疼痛的了解有限，导致其在临床实践中未得到充分认识。虽然编码成人疼痛情感和感觉方面的脑区网络已得到充分描述，但参与婴儿伤害性处理的脑结构却完全未知，这意味着我们无法推断婴儿疼痛体验的本质。我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）确定了新生儿急性伤害性刺激后活跃的脑区网络，并将其活动与在成人中观察到的活动进行比较。在20个活跃的成人大脑区域中的18个区域观察到了显著的婴儿大脑活动，但在婴儿杏仁核或眶额皮质中未观察到。编码疼痛感觉和情感成分的脑区在婴儿中是活跃的，这表明婴儿的疼痛体验与成人非常相似。这凸显了为这一脆弱群体制定有效疼痛管理策略的重要性。
