TY - JOUR

T1 - No abnormalities of intrinsic brain connectivity in the interictal phase of migraine with aura

AU - Hougaard, Anders

AU - Amin, F M

AU - Magon, S

AU - Sprenger, T

AU - Rostrup, E

AU - Ashina, M

N1 - © 2015 EAN.

PY - 2015/4

Y1 - 2015/4

N2 - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Functional neuroimaging studies have shown hyperresponsiveness of cortical areas to visual stimuli in migraine patients with aura outside of attacks. This may be a key feature in the initiation of aura episodes and possibly also migraine headache attacks. It is unknown if cortical dysfunction is present at rest, i.e. in the absence of any external stimuli. Functional magnetic resonance imaging is a powerful technique for evaluating resting state functional connectivity, i.e. coherence of brain activity across cerebral areas. The objective of this study was to investigate resting-state functional brain connectivity in migraineurs with aura outside of attacks using functional magnetic resonance imaging.METHODS: Forty patients suffering from migraine with visual aura and 40 individually age and gender matched healthy controls with no history or family history of migraine were investigated. Following advanced denoising, the data were analyzed both in a hypothesis-driven fashion, testing for abnormalities involving 27 different brain areas of potential relevance to migraine with aura including the cortical visual areas, the amygdala and peri-aqueductal grey matter, and in a data-driven exploratory fashion (dual regression) in order to reveal any possible between-group differences of resting state networks. Age, gender, attack frequency and disease duration were included as nuisance variables.RESULTS: No differences of functional connectivity were found between patients and controls.CONCLUSIONS: The previously reported increased cortical hyperresponsivity in the interictal phase of migraine with aura is unlikely to be caused by abnormalities of intrinsic brain connectivity. The interictal migraine aura brain may be abnormally functioning only during exposure to external stimuli.

AB - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Functional neuroimaging studies have shown hyperresponsiveness of cortical areas to visual stimuli in migraine patients with aura outside of attacks. This may be a key feature in the initiation of aura episodes and possibly also migraine headache attacks. It is unknown if cortical dysfunction is present at rest, i.e. in the absence of any external stimuli. Functional magnetic resonance imaging is a powerful technique for evaluating resting state functional connectivity, i.e. coherence of brain activity across cerebral areas. The objective of this study was to investigate resting-state functional brain connectivity in migraineurs with aura outside of attacks using functional magnetic resonance imaging.METHODS: Forty patients suffering from migraine with visual aura and 40 individually age and gender matched healthy controls with no history or family history of migraine were investigated. Following advanced denoising, the data were analyzed both in a hypothesis-driven fashion, testing for abnormalities involving 27 different brain areas of potential relevance to migraine with aura including the cortical visual areas, the amygdala and peri-aqueductal grey matter, and in a data-driven exploratory fashion (dual regression) in order to reveal any possible between-group differences of resting state networks. Age, gender, attack frequency and disease duration were included as nuisance variables.RESULTS: No differences of functional connectivity were found between patients and controls.CONCLUSIONS: The previously reported increased cortical hyperresponsivity in the interictal phase of migraine with aura is unlikely to be caused by abnormalities of intrinsic brain connectivity. The interictal migraine aura brain may be abnormally functioning only during exposure to external stimuli.

KW - Adult

KW - Cerebrum

KW - Connectome

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Magnetic Resonance Imaging

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Migraine with Aura

KW - Young Adult

U2 - 10.1111/ene.12636

DO - 10.1111/ene.12636

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 25573335

VL - 22

SP - 702-e46

JO - European Journal of Neurology

JF - European Journal of Neurology

SN - 1351-5101

IS - 4

ER -