Neuroscience. Early insult rewires pain circuits.
On page 628, neuroscientists report that painful stimuli delivered to rats shortly after birth permanently rewire the spinal cord circuits that respond to pain. Not only do the circuits contain more axons, but the axons extend to more areas of the spinal cord than they normally would. The results should help convince skeptics of the importance of managing pain in human infants.
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D000344:Afferent Pathways; D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001369:Axons / Q000502:physiology*; D006614:Hindlimb / Q000294:innervation; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007249:Inflammation / Q000503:physiopathology; D010146:Pain; D017288:Pain Threshold; D051381:Rats; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000166:cytology*