Exploration of intrinsic brain activity in migraine with and without comorbid depression

Mengmeng Ma,Ning Chen,Li He,Jian Guo,Yang Zhang,Junran Zhang

doi:10.1186/s10194-018-0876-9

Abstract

BackgroundMajor depressive disorder is a common comorbidity in migraineurs. Depression may affect the progression and prognosis of migraine. Few studies have examined the brain function in migraineurs that may cause this comorbidity. Here, we aimed to explore depression-related abnormalities in the intrinsic brain activity of interictal migraineurs with comorbid depression using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.ResultsSignificant main effects of migraine and depression provided evidence that migraine and depression jointly affected the left medial prefrontal cortex, which was thought to be the neural basis of self-referential mental activity in previous studies. Abnormalities in this region may contribute to determining the common symptoms of migraine and depression and even result in comorbidity. Additionally, migraineurs with comorbid depression had different developmental trajectories in the right thalamus and fusiform, which were associated with recognizing, transmitting, controlling and remembering pain and emotion.ConclusionsBased on our findings, the abnormal mPFC which may contribute to determining the common symptoms in migraine and depression and may be a therapeutic target for migraineurs comorbid depression. The different developmental trajectory in thalamus and fusiform indicates that the comorbidity may arise through a specific mechanism rather than simple superposition of migraine and depression.

Highlights

Major depressive disorder is a common comorbidity in migraineurs
We aimed to explore depression-related abnormalities in the intrinsic brain activity of interictal migraineurs with comorbid depression using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) and compare the findings among four groups, including migraineurs with depression, migraineurs without depression, patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls (HC). (F = 13.10; P < 0.001) (Fig. 1a), the right gyrus rectus (REC) (F = 11.83; P < 0.001) and left medial prefrontal cortex (F = 16.0; P < 0.001) (Fig. 1b)
Migraine and depression jointly affected left medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which is thought to be the neural basis of self-referential mental activity and has been shown the increased amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in depression patients

Summary

Introduction

Major depressive disorder is a common comorbidity in migraineurs. Few studies have examined the brain function in migraineurs that may cause this comorbidity. We aimed to explore depression-related abnormalities in the intrinsic brain activity of interictal migraineurs with comorbid depression using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The brains of migraineurs with comorbid depression differed from patients with migraine only or depression only. Many migraine neuroimaging studies explored alterations of the brain, identified abnormal functions of specific brain regions and speculated that these regions may contribute to determining the depressive symptoms of migraine in migraine without aura [8,9,10,11]. Previous researches have bot clearly determined whether these brain regions differ in migraineurs with depression compared with patients diagnosed with migraine only or depression only. We postulate that migraine and depression exert different effects in brain state, the

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