RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Mapping cortical responses to somatosensory stimuli in human infants with simultaneous near-infrared spectroscopy and event-related potential recording JF eneuro JO eneuro FD Society for Neuroscience SP ENEURO.0026-16.2016 DO 10.1523/ENEURO.0026-16.2016 A1 Madeleine Verriotis A1 Lorenzo Fabrizi A1 Amy Lee A1 Robert J Cooper A1 Maria Fitzgerald A1 Judith Meek YR 2016 UL http://www.eneuro.org/content/early/2016/04/24/ENEURO.0026-16.2016.abstract AB Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG) have recently provided fundamental new information about how the newborn brain processes innocuous and noxious somatosensory information. However, results derived independently from these two techniques are not entirely consistent, raising questions about the relationship between haemodynamic and electrophysiological responses in the study of touch and pain processing in the newborn. To address this, we have recorded NIRS and EEG responses simultaneously for the first time in the human infant following noxious (time-locked clinically required heel lances) and innocuous tactile cutaneous stimulation in 30 newborn infants. The results show that both techniques can be used to record quantifiable and distinct innocuous and noxious evoked activity at a group level in the newborn cortex. Noxious stimulation elicits a peak haemodynamic response that is 10 fold larger than that elicited by an innocuous stimulus (HbO2: 2.0 vs. 0.3 µM) and a distinct nociceptive-specific N3P3 waveform in electrophysiological recordings. However, a novel single-trial analysis revealed that haemodynamic and electrophysiological responses do not always co-occur at an individual level, although when they do (64% of noxious test occasions), they are significantly correlated in magnitude. These data show that while haemodynamic and electrophysiological touch and pain brain activity in newborn infants is comparable in group analyses, important individual differences remain. These data indicate that integrated and multimodal brain monitoring is required to understand central touch and pain processing in the newborn.Significance Statement: Processing of touch and pain in the developing newborn brain can be studied using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG). However, the relationship between haemodynamic and electrophysiological responses to somatosensory stimuli in the newborn is not known. We recorded NIRS and EEG responses simultaneously and found that haemodynamic and electrophysiological touch and pain brain activity in newborn infants is comparable in group analyses; however, single-trial analysis revealed that these responses do not always co-occur in individual trials. This important variability suggests that integrated and multimodal brain monitoring is required to understand central touch and pain processing in the newborn.