Abstract
Background Visual symptoms are common in patients with migraine, even in interictal periods. The purpose was to assess the association between dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) of the visual cortex and clinical characteristics in migraine without aura (MwoA) patients. Methods We enrolled fifty-five MwoA patients as well as fifty gender- and age-matched healthy controls. Regional visual cortex alterations were investigated using regional homogeneity (ReHo) and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF). Then, significant regions were selected as seeds for conducting dFC between the visual cortex and the whole brain. Results Relative to healthy controls, MwoA patients exhibited decreased ReHo and ALFF values in the right lingual gyrus (LG) and increased ALFF values in the prefrontal cortex. The right LG showed abnormal dFC within the visual cortex and with other core brain networks. Additionally, ReHo values for the right LG were correlated with duration of disease and ALFF values of the right inferior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus were correlated with headache frequency and anxiety scores, respectively. Moreover, the abnormal dFC of the right LG with bilateral cuneus was positively correlated with anxiety scores. Conclusions The dFC abnormalities of the visual cortex may be involved in pain integration with multinetworks and associated with anxiety disorder in episodic MwoA patients.
Highlights
Migraine, which is a prevalent neurological disorder, is characterized by recurrent, unilateral, and moderate-to-severe headaches lasting from 4 to 72 hours and is often linked to clinical symptoms of photophobia, phonophobia, and nausea/vomiting [1]
Given the high prevalence of visual symptoms in patients with migraine, there is a substantial need for exploring the neurophysiological mechanism of the visual cortex to migraine, which may help develop novel methods to improve diagnosis and treatment
The current study explored differences in regional brain activity and internetwork dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) between migraine without aura (MwoA) patients and healthy controls (HCs) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
Summary
Migraine, which is a prevalent neurological disorder, is characterized by recurrent, unilateral, and moderate-to-severe headaches lasting from 4 to 72 hours and is often linked to clinical symptoms of photophobia, phonophobia, and nausea/vomiting [1]. Given the high prevalence of visual symptoms in patients with migraine, there is a substantial need for exploring the neurophysiological mechanism of the visual cortex to migraine, which may help develop novel methods to improve diagnosis and treatment. Visual symptoms are common in patients with migraine, even in interictal periods. The purpose was to assess the association between dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) of the visual cortex and clinical characteristics in migraine without aura (MwoA) patients. MwoA patients exhibited decreased ReHo and ALFF values in the right lingual gyrus (LG) and increased ALFF values in the prefrontal cortex. The right LG showed abnormal dFC within the visual cortex and with other core brain networks. The dFC abnormalities of the visual cortex may be involved in pain integration with multinetworks and associated with anxiety disorder in episodic MwoA patients
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