摘要：
一个由英国医生和科学家组成的研究小组4月4日表示，早产婴儿确实能够感觉到疼痛。
Premature babies can actually feel pain and are not just displaying a reflex reaction to a stimulus, a team of doctors and scientists said on Tuesday.

一个由英国医生和科学家组成的研究小组4月4日表示，早产婴儿确实能够感觉到疼痛。

早产儿 你能感觉到疼痛吗？

据路透社4月4日报道，研究人员对18名早产婴儿进行了研究。他们对这些怀孕后24周即早产的小婴儿进行了脑部扫描，他们发现在一些诸如在其脚后跟采集血样等常规检查程序中，早产儿都会感觉到疼痛。

伦敦大学学院的玛丽亚·菲茨杰拉德教授说，"这是我们第一次在人脑确实测量到了疼痛的存在"。它显示出疼痛正在进入这些非常年幼的婴儿的脑部的一些明确信息。

采血样 婴儿脑部出现疼痛信息

直到现在，关于早产儿疼痛的信息一直局限于其身体上的体现，诸如他们因为怕痛而畏缩或者皱紧脸等。菲茨杰拉德教授说，解释这些反应的重要性对于研究人员来说一直比较困难，因为诸如大声喧闹等其它因素也可以触发早产儿的上述反应。

当护士按常规从早产儿脚跟处采集血样，以便对他们进行血液检查时，菲茨杰拉德和她的研究小组使用近红外分光镜对这些早产儿脑部的血液水平和氧合作用进行了测量，记录下了他们的脑部活动。扫描结果显示，当时早产儿的脑部正在处理疼痛信息。

实用性 能更好地评估减痛疗法

菲茨杰拉德说，由于在特别年幼的小婴儿身上很难衡量疼痛的程度，因此减轻疼痛的治疗也一直不尽人意。她说："既然我们对疼痛有了这种科学的、客观的衡量，我们将能更加精确地评估减轻疼痛的各种疗法。我们将能够知道，它们是否在真正地起作用。"

严格地说，人们对于所谓的"疼痛路径"是何时在大脑中开始发育的并不十分清楚。但据科学家估计，应该是在第23周至30周。菲茨杰拉德教授对此表示，感受并处理疼痛需要经过一段长时间的学习。随着这些早产儿的成长，他们对疼痛的敏感性也在逐渐增强。

报道说，这项研究的具体内容发表在新一期的《神经科学杂志》上。

（国际在线独家资讯 王高山）

Premature babies can actually feel pain and are not just displaying a reflex reaction to a stimulus, a team of doctors and scientists said on Tuesday.

Using brain scans of tiny babies born as early as 24 weeks after conception they found that during routine procedures such as obtaining a blood sample from a heel they feel pain.

"This is the first time we have actually measured pain activity in the human brain," said Professor Maria Fitzgerald, of University College London.

"It shows the specific information about pain is getting into the brains of these very young infants," she told Reuters.

Until now, information about pain in premature babies has been limited to physical expressions such as flinching or crunching the face.

But Fitzgerald said it has been difficult for researchers to interpret the significance of those reactions, which can also be triggered by something like a loud noise.

Using near-infrared spectroscopy, which measures blood levels and oxygenation in the brain, Fitzgerald and her team recorded activity in the brains of 18 premature babies born between 23-45 weeks from conception as nurses performed routine blood tests using a heel lance. The scans showed pain information was being processed in the brain.

Because it has been difficult to measure pain in very tiny babies, treatment to relieve it has been sub-optimal, according to Fitzgerald, who reported the findings in The Journal of Neuroscience.

"Now that we have this scientific, objective measure of pain, we'll be able to assess pain-relieving therapies much more precisely," she said.

"We'll be able to see if they are actually working, or not."

PAIN PATHWAYS

Exactly when the so-called "pain pathways" in the brain begin to develop is not certain but scientists estimate between weeks 23 and 30.

Fitzgerald added that understanding and processing pain is something that is learned over a long period of time.

The sensitivity to pain in the babies in the study increased as they grew.

Fitzgerald said there is a possibility that because pain information is getting into their immature brains, which are still developing, it could change their response to pain later in life.

"It is certainly something we need to be aware of. It is another good reason for treating the pain and alleviating it at this very early stage when they are so vulnerable," she added.

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