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From The Times
April 5, 2006

Premature babies do experience real pain

By Sam Lister, Health Correspondent

PREMATURE babies can feel pain and are not just displaying a reflex reaction to a stimulus, scientists say.

Maria Fitzgerald and her team, from University College London, recorded activity in the brains of 18 premature babies, some born at 24 weeks after conception, using near- infrared spectroscopy during routine procedures. The study was published yesterday in the Journal of Neuroscience. The results showed a surge of blood and oxygen in the sensory area of the babies’ brains, meaning the “pain was processed in the higher levels of the brain”, Professor Fitzgerald said.

The results also showed that babies could possibly “remember” the painful experience and that could lead to an increased sensitivity to other non-painful procedures.

The team hope that the findings will lead to more formal plans for managing pain in premature babies. “This is the first time we have actually measured pain activity in the human brain,” Professor Fitzgerald said. Information about pain in premature babies has previously been limited to physical expressions such as flinching.

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