Using an electroencephalogram (EEG), they observed a measurable reduction in electrical impulses in the brain’s pain centres among children who were being lightly stroked but still reacted to the jab. “Parents intuitively stroke their babies at this optimal velocity,” said senior author Rebeccah Slater, professor of paediatric science at the University of Oxford.“We hypothesised that stroking would reduce pain-related brain activity, so we were pleased to see it. But we didn’t see a reduction in how they reflex their limbs away from the heel lance. That could mean our intervention is perhaps causing a dissociation between limb movement and brain activity.”