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Background. Cardiovascular indices of pain are pervasive in the hospital setting. However, no prospective research has examined the development of cardiac responses to acutely painful procedures in the first year of life. Objectives. Our main goal was to synthesize existing evidence regarding the development of cardiovascular responses to acutely painful medical procedures over the first year of life in preterm and term born infants. Methods. A systematic search retrieved 6994 articles to review against inclusion criteria. A total of 41 studies were included in the review. Results. In response to acutely painful procedures, most infants had an increase in mean heart rate (HR) that varied in magnitude both across and within gestational and postnatal ages. Research in the area of HR variability has been inconsistent, limiting conclusions. Conclusions. Longitudinal research is needed to further understand the inherent variability of cardiovascular pain responses across and within gestational and postnatal ages and the causes for the variability.

The aim of this study was to examine the concurrent and predictive relations between healthy toddlers' pain behavior and cardiac indicators (ie, heart rate [HR] and respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]) during routine vaccinations. Caregiver–infant dyads were part of a longitudinal cohort observed during their 12- and 18-month vaccinations. Behavioral and cardiac data were simultaneously collected for 1-minute preneedle and 3-minutes postneedle. Videotapes were coded for pain behaviors (FLACC; Merkel et al., 1997), and cardiac data were analyzed (HR, RSA) during sequential 30-second epochs. Four separate cross-lagged path models were estimated using data from the 12- (n = 147) and 18-month (n = 122) vaccinations. Across 12- and 18-month vaccinations, predictive within-measure relations were consistent for FLACC, HR, and RSA, reflecting good stability of these pain indicators. Behavioral indicators predicted subsequent HR and RSA within the immediate postneedle period. Both baseline behavior and HR/RSA predicted future pain scores. Concurrent residual relations between behavioral and cardiac indicators were inconsistent across time and indicators. Results suggest that behavioral and cardiac indicators reflect unique aspects of the nociceptive response. As such, multimodal assessment tools should be used and contextualized by child age, cardiac indicator, baseline behavior/physiology, and pain phase.

To clarify long-standing conceptual and empirical inconsistencies in models describing the relation between frontal brain asymmetry and emotion, we tested a theory of biological sensitivity to context. We examined whether asymmetry of alpha activation in frontal brain regions, as measured by resting electroencephalography, is sensitive to early developmental contexts. Specifically, we investigated whether frontal asymmetry moderates the association between birth weight and adult outcomes. Adults with left frontal asymmetry (LFA) who were born at extremely low birth weight exhibited high levels of attention problems and withdrawn behaviors in their 30s, whereas normal-birth-weight adults with LFA had low levels of these problem behaviors. Adults with right frontal asymmetry (RFA) displayed a relatively moderate amount of problem behavior regardless of birth weight. Our findings suggest that LFA is associated with sensitivity to developmental context and may help explain why LFA is associated with both positive and negative outcomes, whereas RFA seems to be associated with a more canalized process in some contexts.

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