Peri-ictal changes of cortical excitability in children suffering from migraine without aura
Siniatchkin, M. and Reich, A.L. and Shepherd, Alex J. and van Baalen, A. and Siebner, H.R. and Stephani, U. (2009) Peri-ictal changes of cortical excitability in children suffering from migraine without aura. Pain 147 (1), pp. 132-140. ISSN 0304-3959.
Abstract
In adult patients with migraine, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been used to examine cortical excitability between attacks, but there have been discrepant results. No TMS study has examined cortical excitability in children or adolescents with migraine. Here, we employed TMS to study regional excitability of the occipital (phosphene threshold [PT] and suppression of visual perception) and motor (resting motor threshold and cortical silent period) cortex in ten children suffering from migraine without aura and ten healthy age-matched controls. Patients were studied 1–2days before and after a migraine attack as well as during the inter-migraine interval. The motion aftereffect was also investigated at each time-point as an index of cortical reactivity to moving visual stimuli. Migraineurs had lower PTs compared to healthy participants at each time-point, indicating increased occipital excitability. This increase in occipital excitability was attenuated 1–2days before a migraine attack as indicated by a relative increase in PTs. The increase in PTs before the next attack was associated with a stronger TMS-induced suppression of visual perception and a prolongation of the motion aftereffect. Motor cortex excitability was not altered in patients and did not change during the migraine cycle. These findings show that pediatric migraine without aura is associated with a systematic shift in occipital excitability preceding the migraine attack. Similar systematic fluctuations in cortical excitability might be present in adult migraineurs and may reflect either a protective mechanism or an abnormal decrease in cortical excitability that predisposes an individual to a migraine attack.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | Migraine, cortical excitability, visual cortex, transcranial magnetic stimulation, motion aftereffect |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Administrator |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Dec 2010 14:55 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 16:53 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/2576 |
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