Auditory behavioral and evoked potential measures in migraineurs during attack-free period

Abstract

Migraineurs often experience auditory-related symptoms such as increased sensitivity to sounds and difficulty in processing auditory information. There is some evidence that there may be abnormalities in certain brain regions; thus, there is impetus to use auditory assessment tools that probe different regions in the brain. The goals of this study were to identify whether innate differences exist in auditory measures between migraineurs during attack-free periods and non-migraineurs, and if asymmetries exist between the ears in migraineurs. The migraine group consisted of 10 adult female subjects with a history of migraine headaches, and the control group consisted of 10 adult female subjects with no history of migraine headaches. Results on pure tone audiometry, immittance audiometry and uncomfortable loudness level tests indicated no significant differences between the groups. However, the amplitude growth from 40 to 80dB nHL for auditory brainstem response (ABR) peak V and middle latency response (MLR) peak Na-Pa was larger for the migraine group. The SCAN-A test (a screening test of auditory processing) showed overall lower mean scores for the migraine group, with a significantly poorer score on the competing sentences subtest. The discriminant analysis indicated that the three measures – right ear amplitude growth of ABR peak V, right ear amplitude growth of MLR peak Na-Pa, and the competing sentences subtest contributed towards nearly all of the differences between the migraine and the control groups. These results may suggest subtle, but enduring, abnormalities in the central auditory system in migraineurs.