Abstract
Previous studies have reported abnormal amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation and regional homogeneity in patients with migraine without aura using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. However, how whole brain functional connectivity pattern homogeneity and its corresponding functional connectivity changes in patients with migraine without aura is unknown. In the current study, we employed a recently developed whole brain functional connectivity homogeneity (FcHo) method to identify the voxel-wise changes of functional connectivity patterns in 21 patients with migraine without aura and 21 gender and age matched healthy controls. Moreover, resting-state functional connectivity analysis was used to reveal the changes of corresponding functional connectivities. FcHo analyses identified significantly decreased FcHo values in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), thalamus (THA), and left anterior insula (AI) in patients with migraine without aura compared to healthy controls. Functional connectivity analyses further found decreased functional connectivities between PCC and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), between AI and anterior cingulate cortex, and between THA and left precentral gyrus (PCG). The functional connectivities between THA and PCG were negatively correlated with pain intensity. Our findings indicated that whole brain FcHo and connectivity abnormalities of these regions may be associated with functional impairments in pain processing in patients with migraine without aura.
Highlights
Migraine is a common chronic and idiopathic disorder characterized by recurrent moderate to severe headaches (Kruit et al, 2004)
Reduced functional connectivity homogeneity (FcHo) in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), thalamus (THA), and left anterior insula (AI) were found in patients with migraine without aura compared with healthy controls (Figure 1 and Table 2)
Between THA and left precentral gyrus (PCG), between AI and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and between PCC and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) in patients with migraine without aura compared with healthy controls (Figure 2 and Table 2)
Summary
Migraine is a common chronic and idiopathic disorder characterized by recurrent moderate to severe headaches (Kruit et al, 2004). Frequent migraine attacks cause loss of pain, sensitivity and functional lesions in brain regions (Tietjen, 2004; Borsook et al, 2012). With structural and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, a few previous studies have demonstrated that migraine results in reduced gray matter volume and disrupted white matter. Based on restingstate functional MRI (fMRI), abnormal amplitudes of lowfrequency fluctuation and regional homogeneity (ReHo) were reported (Yu et al, 2012; Xue et al, 2013). All these studies demonstrated that migraine leads to progressive changes of brain structures and functions in patients
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