GentleTouch (Study to Evaluate Somatosensory Evoked Potential (SSEP) Responses to Affective Touch and How it Develops in Healthy Term Babies)

This is a single-centre proof of concept translational study to determine how and when Somato-sensory evoked potentials develop over the first 4 months of life.

The aim of this study is to explore if the investigators can measure the cortical response from the scalp of infants using standard non-invasive EEG techniques, due to the activation of CT afferents and explore how the cortical response changes in regard to age. Preform a longitudinal study on 40 subjects at approximately 4 weeks and 4 months of age. The Gentle Touch study will examine the effect of gentle positive stimuli applied to an infant's forearm on cortical responses at two time points within the first 4 months of life.

Inclusion criteria

• Infants born > 37 weeks gestation
• Single births
• Not requiring admission to the Neonatal Unit
• Healthy infants without suspected congenital or metabolic anomalies
• Written Informed Consent

Exclusion criteria

• Infants born < 37 weeks gestation
• Multiple births
• Severe metabolic or genetic anomaly that would require ongoing specialist care in the infancy period.
• Admission to the Neonatal Unit.
• No written Informed Consent obtained