Abstract
Certain perceptual measures have been proposed as indirect assays of brain neurochemical status in people with migraine. One such measure is binocular rivalry, however, previous studies have not measured rivalry characteristics and brain neurochemistry together in people with migraine. This study compared spectroscopy-measured levels of GABA and Glx (glutamine and glutamate complex) in visual cortex between 16 people with migraine and 16 non-headache controls, and assessed whether the concentration of these neurochemicals explains, at least partially, inter-individual variability in binocular rivalry perceptual measures. Mean Glx level was significantly reduced in migraineurs relative to controls, whereas mean occipital GABA levels were similar between groups. Neither GABA levels, nor Glx levels correlated with rivalry percept duration. Our results thus suggest that the previously suggested relationship between rivalry percept duration and GABAergic inhibitory neurotransmitter concentration in visual cortex is not strong enough to enable rivalry percept duration to be reliably assumed to be a surrogate for GABA concentration, at least in the context of healthy individuals and those that experience migraine.
Highlights
Migraine is a very common neurological disorder that affects approximately 10–15% of the adult population [1]
The aim of this study was to investigate if the concentration of GABA and the main cortical excitatory neurotransmitter complex, Glx differs between groups, whether the ratio of these differs relative to non-headache controls, and whether concentration of these neurochemicals does explain any of the inter-individual variability in binocular rivalry percept durations
There was no main effect of participant group on the spectroscopy measured neurotransmitters (RM-ANOVA: F(1,30) = 2.81, p = 0.10) but there was a significant interaction between neurotransmitter type and group (F(1,30) = 8.98, p = 0.005)
Summary
Migraine is a very common neurological disorder that affects approximately 10–15% of the adult population [1]. In approximately 30% of people with migraine, this involvement manifests as a visual aura [2]. Other very common visual symptoms are photophobia, blur and visual discomfort. The common involvement of the visual system in migraine symptoms has resulted in extensive research that has used the visual system as a model for exploring the migrainous brain more generally
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