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Visual attention during neonatal pain assessment: A 2-second exposure to a facial expression is sufficient
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  • Rafael Orsi,
  • Lucas Carlini,
  • Tatiany Heiderich,
  • Giselle Silva,
  • Juliana Soares,
  • Rita Balda,
  • Marina Barros,
  • Rute Guinsburg,
  • Carlos Thomaz
Rafael Orsi
FEI

Corresponding Author:rafaelorsi@fei.edu.br

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Lucas Carlini
FEI
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Tatiany Heiderich
Unifesp EPM
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Giselle Silva
Unifesp EPM
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Juliana Soares
Unifesp EPM
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Rita Balda
Unifesp EPM
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Marina Barros
Unifesp EPM
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Rute Guinsburg
Unifesp EPM
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Carlos Thomaz
Centro Universitario da FEI
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Abstract

Facial expression has been widely used in clinical practice to assess pain in newborns. However, the inherent visual attention required to make such vital inference is poorly understood. It is also unknown whether this inference occurs differently when comparing health professionals with other adults. To investigate these issues, we have recorded and monitored the pupil size signal of 102 subjects (44 experts, 29 parents, and 29 non-experts) while visually analyzing 20 frontal face images of 10 distinct newborns after a painful procedure and at painless rest. Our experimental results have showed that neonatal pain assessment is more cognitively demanding when analyzing the presence of pain rather than its absence. Moreover, our results disclose that a 2-second exposure to a facial expression is sufficient to make this assessment, regardless whether done by health professionals or non-health ones, suggesting that this highly specific visual task is not driven by clinical experience.
27 Nov 2022Submitted to Electronics Letters
28 Nov 2022Submission Checks Completed
28 Nov 2022Assigned to Editor
06 Feb 2023Reviewer(s) Assigned
08 Feb 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
14 Feb 2023Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
26 Feb 20231st Revision Received
26 Feb 2023Submission Checks Completed
26 Feb 2023Assigned to Editor
26 Feb 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
28 Feb 2023Editorial Decision: Accept