Evidences of emerging pain consciousness during prenatal development: a narrative review.
Raffaele FalsaperlaAusilia Desiree CollottaMichela SpatuzzaMaria FamiliariGiovanna VitalitiMartino RuggieriPublished in: Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology (2022)
We can conclude that from a neuroanatomical point of view, it is rather unlikely that the infant can be seen as a conscious human before 24 weeks of gestational age, thus before all the thalamocortical connections are established. Further literature data have to confirm this hypothesis.