Nociceptive brain activity as a measure of analgesic efficacy in infants by Hartley, C, Duff, E, Green, G, Schmidt Mellado, G, Worley, A, Rogers, R, Slater, R

“…Here, we present an EEG-based measure of infant nociceptive brain activity that is evoked following acute noxious stimulation and is sensitive to analgesic modulation. …”

Stroking modulates noxious-evoked brain activity in human infants by Gursul, D, Goksan, S, Hartley, C, Shmidt Mellado, G, Moultrie, F, Hoskin, A, Adams, E, Hathway, G, Walker, S, McGlone, F, Slater, R

Neurophysiological measures of nociceptive brain activity in the newborn infant--the next steps. by Hartley, C, Slater, R

The influence of the descending pain modulatory system on infant pain-related brain activity by Goksan, S, Baxter, L, Moultrie, F, Duff, E, Hathway, G, Hartley, C, Tracey, I, Slater, R

“…Greater pre-stimulus functional network connectivity across the DPMS was significantly associated with lower noxious-evoked brain activity (p=0.0004, r=-0.86, n=13), suggesting that in newborn infants the DPMS may regulate the magnitude of noxious-evoked brain activity.…”

Changing balance of spinal cord excitability and nociceptive brain activity in early human development by Slater, R, Hartley, C, Moultrie, F, Gursul, D, Hoskin, A, Adams, E, Rogers, R

“…In 40 infants aged 28–42 weeks’ gestation, we examined the relationship between nociceptive brain activity and spinal reflex withdrawal activity in response to a clinically essential noxious procedure. …”

Functional and diffusion MRI reveal the neurophysiological basis of neonates’ noxious-stimulus evoked brain activity by Baxter, L, Moultrie, F, Fitzgibbon, S, Aspbury, M, Mansfield, R, Bastiani, M, Rogers, R, Jbabdi, S, Duff, E, Slater, R

“…In this neonatal multimodal MRI study, we use resting-state and diffusion MRI to investigate inter-individual variability in noxiousstimulus evoked brain activity. We observe that cerebral haemodynamic responses to experimental noxious stimulation can be predicted from separately acquired resting-state brain activity (n=18). …”

Noxious stimulation in children receiving general anaesthesia evokes an increase in delta frequency brain activity. by Hartley, C, Poorun, R, Goksan, S, Worley, A, Boyd, S, Rogers, R, Ali, T, Slater, R

“…More than 235,000children/year in the UK receive general anaesthesia, but it is unknown whether nociceptive stimuli alter cortical brain activity in anaesthetised children. Time-locked electroencephalogram (EEG) responses to experimental tactile stimuli, experimental noxious stimuli, and clinically required cannulation were examined in 51 children (ages 1-12years) under sevoflurane monoanaesthesia. …”

The impact of premature extrauterine exposure on infants’ stimulus-evoked brain activity across multiple sensory systems by Schmidt Mellado, G, Pillay, K, Adams, E, Alarcon, A, Andritsou, F, Cobo, MM, Evans Fry, R, Fitzgibbon, S, Moultrie, F, Baxter, L, Slater, R

Optimising neonatal fMRI data analysis: Design and validation of an extended dHCP preprocessing pipeline to characterise noxious-evoked brain activity in infants by Baxter, L, Fitzgibbon, S, Moultrie, F, Goksan, S, Jenkinson, M, Smith, S, Andersson, J, Duff, E, Slater, R

“…We describe and validate this extended dHCP fMRI preprocessing pipeline to analyse changes in brain activity evoked following an acute noxious stimulus applied to the infant's foot. …”

Birth experience in newborn infants is associated with changes in nociceptive sensitivity by Kasser, S, Hartley, C, Rickenbacher, H, Klarer, N, Depoorter, A, Datta, A, Cobo, M, Goksan, S, Hoskin, A, Magerl, W, Huhn, E, Green, G, Slater, R, Wellmann, S

“…We hypothesize that infants born by vaginal delivery will show lower noxious-evoked brain activity a few hours after birth compared to those born by elective cesarean section. …”

Investigating pain in the developing human brain by Moultrie, FA

“…Nociceptive-specific brain activity increased in magnitude with gestational age, whereas reflex withdrawal activity decreased in amplitude, duration, and latency. …”

Improving the measurement and treatment of infant pain by Gursul, D

“…</p> <p>Noxious-evoked brain activity has been well characterised following medically required heel lances and experimental noxious stimuli, but brain activity evoked by alternative clinically relevant stimuli must also be characterised to assess the efficacy of a wider range of pain relief interventions for these procedures. …”

Measuring pain in the newborn infant by Green, G

“…As pain is both an emotional and sensory experience, noxious-evoked brain activity likely provides an important surrogate pain measure. …”

Multimodal characterisation of the infant response to retinopathy of prematurity screening and treatment by Buckle, M

“…</p> <p>In this thesis, novel approaches to quantifying infant pain and stress evoked by ROP procedures are presented. Infant brain activity was characterised using quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) analysis to test the hypothesis that ROP screening evokes noxious-related changes in infant brain activity. …”

Brain responses in infants by Hartley, C, Slater, R

“…Even in the most immature infants, noxious stimulation evokes activity across all levels of the nervous system, eliciting changes in heart rate, respiratory rate, reflex withdrawal, hormonal responses, facial expression, and brain activity. This chapter focuses on measures of noxious-evoked brain activity in infants, including methods of assessment, use in clinical trials, and the current limitations of these techniques.…”

Early life inflammation is associated with spinal cord excitability and nociceptive sensitivity in human infants by Cobo, MM, Green, G, Andritsou, F, Baxter, L, Evans Fry, R, Grabbe, A, Gursul, D, Hoskin, A, Mellado, GS, van der Vaart, M, Adams, E, Bhatt, A, Denk, F, Hartley, C, Slater, R

“…We present evidence that neonatal inflammation (assessed by measuring C-reactive protein levels) is associated with increased spinal cord excitability and evoked brain activity following both tactile and noxious stimulation. …”

Electrophysiological responses to noxious stimuli in the anaesthetised child by Poorun, R

“…It is not known whether nociceptive stimulation evokes a change in cortical brain activity in the anaesthetised child. The aim of this thesis is to determine whether noxious stimulation administered to anaesthetised children results in a measurable change in brain activity and whether this evoked activity is altered in children who have been born prematurely and experienced a high level of pain in early life.…”

Developing translational tools for measuring pain in neonates by Cobo Andrade, MM

“…</p> <p>The magnitude of the brain activity response to the same stimulus intensity can be highly variable between infants. …”

Improving the treatment of infant pain by Moultrie, F, Slater, R, Hartley, C

“…<br/><br/> Recent findings:<br/> Recently developed measures of noxious-evoked brain activity are sensitive to analgesic modulation, providing an objective quantitative outcome measure that can be used in clinical trials of analgesics. …”

Behavioural discrimination of noxious stimuli in infants is dependent on brain maturation by Green, G, Hartley, C, Hoskin, A, Duff, E, Shriver, A, Wilkinson, D, Adams, E, Rogers, R, Moultrie, F, Slater, R

“…However, studies of early human brain development suggest that premature infants aged less than 34 weeks' gestation do not display discriminative brain activity patterns to equally salient noxious and innocuous events. …”