Altered Processing of Sensory Stimuli in Patients with Migraine

Overview

Journal Nat Rev Neurol

Specialty Neurology

Date 2014 Feb 19

PMID 24535465

Citations 132

Authors

Marina de Tommaso

Anna Ambrosini

Filippo Brighina

Gianluca Coppola

Armando Perrotta

Francesco Pierelli

Giorgio Sandrini

Massimiliano Valeriani

Daniele Marinazzo

Sebastiano Stramaglia

Jean Schoenen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Migraine is a cyclic disorder, in which functional and morphological brain changes fluctuate over time, culminating periodically in an attack. In the migrainous brain, temporal processing of external stimuli and sequential recruitment of neuronal networks are often dysfunctional. These changes reflect complex CNS dysfunction patterns. Assessment of multimodal evoked potentials and nociceptive reflex responses can reveal altered patterns of the brain's electrophysiological activity, thereby aiding our understanding of the pathophysiology of migraine. In this Review, we summarize the most important findings on temporal processing of evoked and reflex responses in migraine. Considering these data, we propose that thalamocortical dysrhythmia may be responsible for the altered synchronicity in migraine. To test this hypothesis in future research, electrophysiological recordings should be combined with neuroimaging studies so that the temporal patterns of sensory processing in patients with migraine can be correlated with the accompanying anatomical and functional changes.

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