Consequences of prematurity on the cognitive, emotional and behavioural aspects of pain: focus on social cognition and empathy to pain – PREMA-SoCogPain

Former preterm are at higher risks of development of persistent neuro-pathologies, including autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, social and cognitive impairments or emotional disorders. Moreover, changes in pain sensitivity and a possible higher risk of chronic pain are also suggested in adult former preterm. This project aims to further characterize the pain profile of former very/extremely preterm at an adult age, including their sensory profile, but also the affective and cognitive components of pain, which are important to consider for chronic pain risks, and to evaluate social cognition skills and empathy in pain-related situations. Participants aged 18 to 35 years with a history of very/extremely preterm birth and matched control participants will be recruited.

This project will evaluate i) the sensory, cognitive and emotional aspects of pain, including pain thresholds, sensory evoked potentials, the function of descending controls of pain (conditioned pain modulation protocol), and the efficiency of distraction analgesia, together with an evaluation of pain cognitive interference and of the strategies to cope with pain, fear of pain, and emotional state using several validated questionnaires. Then, ii) social cognition skills will be evaluated using classical test batteries, empathy and alexithymia questionnaires, and a measure of the empathic response in a pain-related situation using behavioral and eye tracking. Then, subjects will be asked to iii) participate in an MRI investigation to determiner whether theses behavioral changes are associated with changes in brain activity or connectivity patterns in adult born VPT compared to controls.