ArticleFrontiers in neuroscience2019
Early Pain Exposure Influences Functional Brain Connectivity in Very Preterm Neonates.
Article in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Long-term alterations in pain sensitivity following preterm birth: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Pooled it
- Breastmilk as a Multisensory Intervention for Relieving Pain during Newborn Screening Procedures: A Randomized Control Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Trial
- Review
- Association Between Neonatal Pain Exposure and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Very Preterm Infants During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Retrospective Observational Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Atypical Development of Functional Brain Networks in Neonates with Congenital Heart Disease.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Pain, Opioids, and Functional Connectivity in Preterm Infants.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- Pain assessment in non-verbal children with neurocognitive impairment: a review on current tools, challenges, and clinical perspectives.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Sedation and Analgesia for Intubation, LISA, and INSURE Procedures in Israeli NICUs: Caregivers' Practices and Perspectives.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Neonatal amygdala volumes, procedural pain and the association with social-emotional development in children born very preterm.Brain structure & function · 2024Article
- Brain health in preterm infants: importance of early-life pain and analgesia exposure.Pediatric research · 2024Review
- Functional connectivity of the pediatric brain.Neuroradiology · 2024Review
- Development of the neonatal pain response variable set: a mixed methods consensus process.European journal of pediatrics · 2024Article
- Pain Exposure and Brain Connectivity in Preterm Infants.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Postoperative accurate pain assessment of children and artificial intelligence: A medical hypothesis and planned study.World journal of clinical cases · 2024Review
- Article
- Terminology matters: is the International Association for the Study of Pain definition of pain fully satisfactory for fetuses, neonates, and infants?Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Central Autonomic Network and Heart Rate Variability in Premature Neonates.Developmental neuroscience · 2024Article
- Article
- Association of Brain Microstructure and Functional Connectivity With Cognitive Outcomes and Postnatal Growth Among Early School-Aged Children Born With Extremely Low Birth Weight.JAMA network open · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEarly exposure to nociceptive events may cause brain structural alterations in preterm neonates, with long-lasting consequences on neurodevelopmental outcome. Little is known on the extent to which early pain may affect brain connectivity. We aim to evaluate brain functional connectivity changes in preterm neonate that underwent multiple invasive procedures during the postnatal period, and to correlate them with the neurodevelopmental outcome at 24 months.
methodsIn this prospective case-control study, we collected information about exposure to painful events during the early postnatal period and resting-state BOLD-fMRI data at term equivalent age from two groups of preterm neonate: 33 subjected to painful procedures during the neonatal intensive care (mean gestational age 27.9 ± 1.8 weeks) and 13 who did not require invasive procedures (average gestational age 31.2 ± 2.1 weeks). A data-driven principal-component-based multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) was used to investigate the effect of early pain exposure on brain functional connectivity, and the relationship between connectivity changes and neurodevelopmental outcome at 24 months, assessed with Griffiths, Developmental Scale-Revised: 0-2.
resultsEarly pain was associated with decreased functional connectivity between thalami and bilateral somatosensory cortex, and between the right insular cortex and ipsilateral amygdala and hippocampal regions, with a more evident effect in preterm neonate undergoing more invasive procedures. Functional connectivity of the right thalamocortical pathway was related to neuromotor outcome at 24 months (
conclusionEarly exposure to pain is associated with abnormal functional connectivity of developing networks involved in the modulation of noxious stimuli in preterm neonate, contributing to the neurodevelopmental consequence of preterm birth.
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