Luke Baxter
PhD, MSc, BSc
Senior Research Scientist
Luke is currently a PhD student studying neonatal pain in Prof Rebeccah Slater’s lab. He is interested in the unique challenges faced during infant MRI, such as differences in brain structure and physiology and large degree of subject motion compared to healthy adults. He has focused on optimising preprocessing and analysis methods tailored to this age group. Luke is also interested in understanding the sources of individual variability in response to noxious stimuli, with a focus on spontaneous brain activity. Specifically, he is interested in looking at how resting-state fMRI activity relates to patterns of noxious-evoked brain activity and pain-related behaviour in newborn infants.
This research could increase our understanding of individual infant's sensitivity to pain and how this might change over time and with experience. An fMRI-derived subject-specific metric of noxious evoked activity may also be an invaluable addition in the repertoire of metrics used in infant pain research.
Luke is currently a member of St Cross College, completed his MSc in Neuroscience in 2014 at University of Oxford and his BSc in Neuroscience in 2013 at University College Cork.
Recent publications
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Physiological responses to retinopathy of prematurity screening: indirect ophthalmoscopy versus ultra-widefield retinal imaging.
Purohit R. et al, (2025), Pediatr Res
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How to Peer Review a Systematic Review: A Peer-Reviewer's Guide to Reviewing Reviews
Baxter L., (2025), Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
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Head circumference and intelligence, schooling, employment, and income: a systematic review.
Freire MBO. et al, (2024), BMC Pediatr, 24
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Statistical analysis plan for the Petal trial: the effects of parental touch on relieving acute procedural pain in neonates
Baxter L. et al, (2024), Wellcome Open Research, 8, 402 - 402
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Establishing a standardised approach for the measurement of neonatal noxious-evoked brain activity in response to an acute somatic nociceptive heel lance stimulus.
Aspbury M. et al, (2024), Cortex, 179, 215 - 234