A novel sensor design for accurate measurement of facial somatosensation in pre-term infants

Facial somatosensory feedback is critical for breastfeeding in the first days of life. However, its development has never been investigated in humans. Here we develop a new interface to measure facial somatosensation in newborn infants. The novel system allows to measure neuronal responses to touching the face of the subject by synchronously recording scalp electroencephalography (EEG) and the force applied by the experimenter. This is based on a dedicated force transducer that can be worn on the finger underneath a clinical nitrile glove and linked to a commercial EEG acquisition system. The calibrated device measures the pressure applied by the investigator when tapping the skin concurrently with the resulting brain response. With this system, we were able to demonstrate that taps of 192 mN (mean) reliably elicited facial somatosensory responses in 7 pre-term infants. These responses had a time course similar to those following limbs stimulation, but more lateral topographical distribution consistent with body representations in primary somatosensory areas. The method introduced can therefore be used to reliably measure facial somatosensory responses in vulnerable infants.

面部体感反馈在生命最初几日的母乳喂养过程中至关重要，但目前尚未有针对人类面部体感反馈发育情况的相关研究。本研究开发了一套全新的检测界面，用于测量新生儿的面部体感功能。该创新系统可通过同步采集头皮脑电图（electroencephalography，EEG）与实验者施加的作用力，获取受试者面部受到触碰时的神经反应。该系统依托一款专用力传感器（force transducer），可佩戴于临床丁腈手套（nitrile glove）下方的手指上，并可连接至商用脑电图采集系统（commercial EEG acquisition system）。这款经过校准的设备可同步记录研究者轻触皮肤时施加的压力，以及由此引发的大脑响应。借助该系统，我们成功在7名早产婴儿中证实，平均强度为192毫牛的轻触刺激可稳定诱发面部体感反应。此类反应的时间进程与肢体刺激诱发的反应相近，但其空间拓扑分布更偏向外侧，这与初级体感皮层的躯体表征模式相符。因此，本研究提出的方法可用于稳定测量体弱婴儿的面部体感反应。