Abstract
Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate resting-state functional connectivity (FC) differences in insular sub-regions during the interictal phase in patients with migraine without aura (MWoA).Methods: Forty-nine MWoA patients (MWoA group) and 48 healthy individuals (healthy control group) were recruited for this study. All of the subjects underwent neurological examination and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The MRI data were processed using Brat 1.0 software to obtain a whole-brain FC diagram and using Rest 1.8 software to obtain the FC z-score of the sub-regions of both insulas (six sub-regions on each side). Therefore, there were a total of 12 regions of interest (ROIs) that were used as seed points for the statistical analysis.Results: There was abnormal FC between the insular sub-regions and multiple brain regions in the MWoA patients compared with the healthy control group, and a clear laterality was also observed. In addition, the FC z-score of certain sub-regions was negatively correlated with the disease duration.Conclusion: Different insular sub-regions are functionally associated with different regions of the brain and therefore have different functions. In MWoA, the FC between the insular sub-regions and other brain regions was mostly reduced, while a small amount was increased; additionally, the FC may be ipsilateral with a right-side advantage. Variations in the FC of insular sub-regions can be observed as an important indicator of MWoA.
Highlights
Migraine is a debilitating disorder and one of the most common disorders of the nervous system (Stovner et al, 2007)
We found that the mean cortical thickness of the insula in patients with migraine without aura (MWoA) was significantly decreased compared with that in a healthy control group, and the mean cortical thickness of the insula anterior was positively correlated with the duration of the disease course, while the mean cortical thickness of the insula superior and insula inferior was negatively correlated with the duration of the disease course (Yu et al, 2016)
The HIT scores of the MWoA patients were higher than 50 points, and their visual analog scale (VAS) scores were higher than 4 points
Summary
Migraine is a debilitating disorder and one of the most common disorders of the nervous system (Stovner et al, 2007). This disease has a clear familial aggregation (Yu et al, 2012) and seriously affects the daily life and work of patients. Damage to brain structures and abnormal functional connectivity (FC) have been observed using a variety of imaging techniques in the insula of migraine patients (Cauda et al, 2011; Lee et al, 2016; Wilcox et al, 2016). With a deeper understanding of migraine, the accumulated evidence has shown that the functions of different brain sub-regions vary widely, raising new demands, and challenges for future studies
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