Abstract
There are a number of reports that perceptual, electrophysiological and imaging measures can track migraine periodicity. As the electrophysiological and imaging research requires specialist equipment, it has few practical applications. This study sought to track changes in performance on four visual tasks over the migraine cycle. Coherence thresholds were measured for two motion and two orientation tasks. The first part of the study confirmed that the data obtained from an online study produced comparable results to those obtained under controlled laboratory conditions. Thirteen migraine with aura, 12 without aura, and 12 healthy controls participated. The second part of the study showed that thresholds for discriminating vertical coherent motion varied with the migraine cycle for a majority of the participants who tested themselves multiple times (four with aura, seven without). Performance improved two days prior to a migraine attack and remained improved for two days afterwards. This outcome is as expected from an extrapolation of earlier electrophysiological research. This research points to the possibility of developing sensitive visual tests that patients can use at home to predict an impending migraine attack and so take steps to try to abort it or, if it is inevitable, to plan their lives around it.
Highlights
Migraine is a common neurological condition characterised by recurrent, disabling headaches [1].Many researchers have assessed visual processing in migraine due to the visual disturbances that may precede an attack, the intense sensitivity to light that patients typically experience during an attack, and the fact that visual stimuli can trigger attacks in up to 60% of patients [2,3,4,5,6,7]
The classic visual aura has been described as a fortification spectra or a scintillating scotoma
Coherence thresholds were measured for two motion and two orientation tasks
Summary
Migraine is a common neurological condition characterised by recurrent, disabling headaches [1]. Longitudinal study: Based on electrophysiological studies showing a normalisation of certain event-related potentials (ERP) in the days leading up to a migraine attack and/or immediately afterwards [33,34,35,36,37], it was predicted that coherence thresholds would fall in the days leading up to a migraine attack and remain at a lower level immediately afterwards For both studies, there were not expected to be differences between those with migraine with or without aura, consistent with previous psychophysical tests of visual processing [4,5,6,25,26,27,28]. This outcome points to the possibility of developing sensitive visual tests that patients can use at home themselves to predict an impending migraine attack and so take steps to try to abort it or, if it is inevitable, be able to plan their lives around it
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