Abstract
BackgroundThis study aimed to examine the N400 effect and event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited from congruent and incongruent stimuli in patients who have migraines with aura (MwA).MethodsA total of 33 MwA patients and 20 healthy controls (HCs) were studied. They were balanced in age (35.12 ± 8.94 vs 34.70 ± 9.59 years, p = 0.872) and sex (69.7 vs 75.0% females, p = 0.761). ERPs were measured in response to both stimuli, where pictures were preceded with an object name that either matched or mismatched with the object. Averaged amplitudes, peaks, peak latencies, difference waves and topography were compared between MwA and HCs.ResultsMwA patients had significantly lower averaged amplitudes at the Fz and F4 sites during incongruent stimuli, as well as reduced peaks at the C3 and Pz sites. Topography showed a more widespread N400 effect over scalp relative to HCs. The difference ERP waveforms did not differ in the N400 effect between groups, but the P600 effect was significantly stronger in the HCs group relative to the MwA group at the Pz (6.52 ± 2.57 vs. 3.50 ± 3.15, p = 0.001) and P4 (5.86 ± 2.79 vs. 3.95 ± 3.64, p = 0.040) sites.ConclusionsPicture-word matching tasks could serve as a potential new method for the investigation of semantic processing in MwA patients.
Highlights
Migraine with aura (MwA) is a worldwide highly prevalent disorder that can have a tremendous impact on everyday life [1, 2]
This study aims to correct this lack by studying event-related potential (ERP) parameters in a group of patients who have episodic migraines with typical aura and to compare them with healthy controls (HCs)
Differences are noticed on the averaged difference ERP waveforms, where the P600 effect was significantly stronger in the HCs group relative to the migraines with aura (MwA) group at the Pz (6.52 ± 2.57 vs. 3.50 ± 3.15, p = 0.001) and P4 (5.86 ± 2.79 vs. 3.95 ± 3.64, p = 0.040) sites
Summary
Migraine with aura (MwA) is a worldwide highly prevalent disorder that can have a tremendous impact on everyday life [1, 2]. Compared to a Petrusic et al The Journal of Headache and Pain (2021) 22:157 congruent condition where words and object referents are presented correctly with one another, words and pictures that are not matching elicit an ERP component that has a more negative amplitude, peaking around 300–500 milliseconds (ms) after the onset of the word, with a most visible effect on centro-parietal electrodes [12] An advantage of this technique is that it provides an immediate and continuous record of the neural processes associated with evaluating a cognitive stimulus with a high temporal resolution, allowing to directly and precisely measure when different computational processes underlying semantic memory are taking place in the brain [11, 13]. This study aimed to examine the N400 effect and event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited from congruent and incongruent stimuli in patients who have migraines with aura (MwA)
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