Evaluation Of Central Auditory Function In Migraine Patients

Abstract

Abstract Background Migraine is a neurological disease associated with abnormal excitability in visual, somatosensory and motor cortex. Previous researches reported abnormalities in the auditory brainstem response (ABR) and in vestibular functions. These results are an indicator of impending auditory malfunction in Migraine and disruption of central auditory processing mechanisms. Objectives This study aimed to assess and compare central auditory processing (CAP) performance in migraine patients with and without dizziness and healthy controls. Subjects and method Sixty subjects aged between18 and 60 years divided into 3 groups; control group (twenty normal healthy subjects), study group I (twenty subject diagnosed with migraine) and study group II (twenty subjects diagnosed with vestibular migraine). They were subjected to a headache sheet, central auditory processing questionnaire and Psychophysical central auditory tests: including Arabic Speech Intelligibility In Noise (SPIN) test for adults, Arabic Dichotic digit test, Gap In Noise (GIN) test, Duration pattern test and Arabic memory tests. Results Statistically significant difference was found between the 2 study groups and control group regarding right dichotic (p = 0.004),right and left duration pattern tests (p = 0.01) with highly statistically significant difference(p < 0.001) Gap In Noise (GIN) test, left dichotic digit test, right and left speech in noise. But there was no statistically significant difference between the two study groups regarding all tests. Conclusions Patients with migraine and vestibular migraine had poor performance in all central auditory tests when compared with control this mean that migraine lead to impaired central auditory processing in adults. Also, there was no significant difference between the 2 study groups regarding central auditory test results which may support that both migraine with and without dizziness have the same pathophysiology.