ArticleNeuroImage2018
The distribution of pain activity across the human neonatal brain is sex dependent.
Article in NeuroImage, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Sex-specific pain management and outcomes in pediatric elective posterior spinal fusion: a database review.Spine deformity · 2026Pooled it
- Electroencephalography during acute painful procedures in neonates: a scoping review.Pain reports · 2026Review
- Article
- Prefrontal Cortical Near-Infrared Spectroscopy for Acute Pain Assessment in Infants: A Feasibility Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Objective Detection of Newborn Infant Acute Procedural Pain Using EEG and Machine Learning Algorithms.Paediatric & neonatal pain · 2025Article
- The influence of sex on neuroimmune communication, pain, and physiology.Biology of sex differences · 2024Review
- Establishing a standardised approach for the measurement of neonatal noxious-evoked brain activity in response to an acute somatic nociceptive heel lance stimulus.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2024Article
- Sex and Gender in Orthopaedic Research: How Do We Continue to Move the Needle?The Journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume · 2024Article
- Association of Neonatal Midazolam Exposure With Hippocampal Growth and Working Memory Performance in Children Born Preterm.Neurology · 2023Article
- Repetitive and compulsive behavior after Early-Life-Pain associated with reduced long-chain sphingolipid species.Cell & bioscience · 2023Article
- Managing Post-Operative Pain in Orthopedic Patients: An International Comparison.Kansas journal of medicine · 2023Article
- Toward personalized medicine for pharmacological interventions in neonates using vital signs.Paediatric & neonatal pain · 2021Review
- Pain in Preterm Infants: Different Perspectives.The Journal of perinatal education · 2021Article
- Quantifying noxious-evoked baseline sensitivity in neonates to optimise analgesic trials.eLife · 2021Observational
- Can Event-Related Potentials Evoked by Heel Lance Assess Pain Processing in Neonates? A Systematic Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- The Long-Term Effects of Neonatal Inflammatory Pain on Cognitive Function and Stress Hormones Depend on the Heterogeneity of the Adolescent Period of Development in Male and Female Rats.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Article
- Music therapy and retinopathy of prematurity screening: using recorded maternal singing and heartbeat for post exam recovery.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2020Article
- Qualitative sex differences in pain processing: emerging evidence of a biased literature.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2020Review
- Nociception and the neonatal brain.Seminars in fetal & neonatal medicine · 2019Review
- Updated Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Oxycodone.Clinical pharmacokinetics · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In adults, there are differences between male and female structural and functional brain connectivity, specifically for those regions involved in pain processing. This may partly explain the observed sex differences in pain sensitivity, tolerance, and inhibitory control, and in the development of chronic pain. However, it is not known if these differences exist from birth. Cortical activity in response to a painful stimulus can be observed in the human neonatal brain, but this nociceptive activity continues to develop in the postnatal period and is qualitatively different from that of adults, partly due to the considerable cortical maturation during this time. This research aimed to investigate the effects of sex and prematurity on the magnitude and spatial distribution pattern of the long-latency nociceptive event-related potential (nERP) using electroencephalography (EEG). We measured the cortical response time-locked to a clinically required heel lance in 81 neonates born between 29 and 42 weeks gestational age (median postnatal age 4 days). The results show that heel lance results in a spatially widespread nERP response in the majority of newborns. Importantly, a widespread pattern is significantly more likely to occur in females, irrespective of gestational age at birth. This effect is not observed for the short latency somatosensory waveform in the same infants, indicating that it is selective for the nociceptive component of the response. These results suggest the early onset of a greater anatomical and functional connectivity reported in the adult female brain, and indicate the presence of pain-related sex differences from birth.
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Registered trials
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