The developing human pain connectome and brain dynamics of infant pain: sex differences, pain history and skin-to-skin care

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Many infants need neonatal care at birth, either because they have been born prematurely or because they are unwell. Some of the most premature and unwell babies can spend months in hospital where they undergo numerous clinical procedures, many of which are tissue breaking and likely to be painful. Despite efforts to reduce the number of procedures and handling, the burden to these vulnerable individuals is considerable, particularly as they occur at a critical phase of brain development, when connections are forming between different brain regions. The developing brain requires sensory stimulation to develop normally, but if this stimulation is exaggerated or applied at inappropriate developmental stages, it can cause permanent harm. Indeed, repeated early exposure to painful procedures is associated with lasting adverse changes to the brain. The aim of this project is to understand how pain is processed in the human infant brain. We will map the structural and functional development of the brain circuits that are necessary to process pain and investigate how these are affected by the repeated tissue-damaging procedures of hospital stay. We will establish whether these circuits develop differently in males and females. Moreover, as the experience of pain is highly dependent upon what is already going on in the brain and what happens around us, we will explore how ongoing brain activity influences the response to a painful stimulus and how we can manipulate these processes with non-pharmacological interventions, such as caregiver skin-to-skin care, to reduce the pain experienced. This research project will provide the knowledge we need to alleviate infant pain and reduce any long-term adverse effects of neonatal intensive care procedures.